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THE WAR DRAMA 
OF THE EAGLES 




rORTE-AIOr.R, IMPERIAL GUARD, AND GRENADIER SERGEANT 
IN PARADE UNIFORM. 

From St. Uilaire's Ilistoire tie la Garde Impiriale. 



[Frontispiece 



THE WAR DRAMA 
OF THE EAGLES 

NAPOLEON'S STANDARD-BEARERS ON THE 
BATTLEFIELD IN VICTORY AND DEFEAT 
FROM AUSTERLITZ TO WATERLOO 
A RECORD OF HARD FIGHTING, HEROISM 
AND ADVENTURE 

BY EDWARD ERASER 

I' 

AUTHOR OF "the ENEMY AT TRAFALGAR," "FAMOUS 
FIGHTERS OF THE FLEET," "THE 'LONDONS,'" ETC. 



" These Eagles to you shall ever be your rallying-point. Swear to sacrifice 
your lives in their defence ; to maintain them by your courage ever in the 
path of victory." — On the Day of the Presentation on the Field of Mars. 
" The soldier who loses his Eagle loses his Honour and his All ! " 

Address to the 4th of the Line aiter Austerlitz. 
" The loss of an Eagle is an affront to the reputation of its regiment for which 
neither victory nor tlie glory acquired on a hundred fields can make amends." 
55th Bulletin of the Grand Army : 1807. 

Napolkon. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 



NEW YORK 
E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY 

1912 






l^pli^ 



/^ 



^' 



PREFACE 

This book breaks fresh ground in a field of 
romantic and widespread interest ; one that 
should prove attractive, associated as it is with 
the ever-fascinating subject of Napoleon. In- 
cidentally, indeed, it may also help to throw 
a new sidelight on certain characteristics of 
Napoleon as a soldier. 

I venture to hope at the same time that it 
will arouse interest further as offering independent 
testimony to the valour of our own soldiers, the 
Old British x\rmy which, under Wellington, de- 
feated on the battlefield the veterans of the 
Eagles whose feats of heroism and hardihood 
are described in the book. Magnificent as were 
the acts of fine daring and heroic endurance of 
the men whom Wellington led to victory, no 
less stirring and deserving of admiration were 
the deeds of chivalrous valour and stern fortitude 
done for the honour of Napoleon's Eagles by 
the gallant soldiers who faced them and proved 
indeed foemen worthy of their steel. All who 
hold in regard cool, self-sacrificing bravery 
and steadfast courage in adversity and peril 



vi PREFACE 

will find no lack of instances in the stories of 
what the warriors of the Eagles dared and under- 
went for the name and fame of the Great Captain. 

The record of Napoleon's Eagles in war has 
never before been set forth, and the centenary- 
year of Badajoz and Salamanca and the Moscow 
Campaign seems to offer a befitting occasion 
for its appearance. 

The world, indeed, is in the midst of a cycle 
of Napoleonic centenaries. Our own centenary 
memories of Talavera — the victory of which 
Wellington said, in later years, that if his Allies 
had done their part, " it would have been as 
great a battle as Waterloo " — of Busaco ridge 
and Torres Vedras, of heroic Barrosa and desper- 
ate Albuhera, — these are only just behind us. 
Immediately ahead lie the centenaries of yet 
greater events. In less than a twelvemonth 
hence England will mark the centenary of 
Vittoria, Wellington's decisive day in Spain, 
the crowning triumph of the Peninsular War ; 
and yet more than that in its import and sequel 
for Europe. It was the news of Vittoria that, 
in July 1813, decided Napoleon's father-in-law 
to throw Austria's sword into the balance against 
the Man of Destiny, compelling Napoleon, with 
what remained of the Grand Army, to stand at 
bay for the " Battle of the Nations " on the 
Marchfeldt before Leipsic. Within six months 
from then, the world, in like manner, will recall 
the Farewell of Fontainebleau, and Elba ; and 



PREFACE vii 

finally, in the year after that, the British Empire 
will commemorate the epoch-making centenary 
of the greatest of all British triumphs in arms 
on land — 

" Of that fierce field where last the Eagles swooped, 
Where oxir Great Master wielded Britain's sword. 
And the Dark Soul the world could not subdue, 
Bowed to thy fortune. Prince of Waterloo ! " 

— the triple- event, indeed, of Waterloo, the 
Bellerophon, St. Helena. 

The stories told here exist indeed, even in 
France, only in more or less fragmentary form, 
scattered broadcast amongst the memoirs left 
by the men of the Napoleonic time. They have 
not before been brought together within the 
covers of a book. 

I have utilised, in addition to the personal 
memoirs of Napoleon's officers, French regi- 
mental records, bulletins, and despatches 
(noted in my List of Authorities), other official 
military documents, contemporary newspapers, 
both British and foreign, and information kindly 
placed at my disposal by the authorities of 
Chelsea Royal Hospital and the Royal United 
Service Institution, and by friends abroad. 

Edward Eraser. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

List of Authob-ities ..... xv 



CHAPTER I 
Napoleon adopts the Eagle of Caesar . 1 

CHAPTER II 

The Day of the Presentation on the Field 

OF Mars ....... 16 

CHAPTER III 

In the First Campaign ; 

under fire with marshal ney . . 60 

the midnight battle by the DANUBE . 80 

CHAPTER IV 

On the Field of AusteRlitz ... 96 

CHAPTER V 

In the Second Campaign : 

jena and the triumph of berlin . .123 
the twelve lost eagles of eylau . . 150 

ix 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER VI 



Preparing for the Future : 

the " eagle-guard " .... 181 



CHAPTER VII 

Before the Enemy at Aspern and Wagram . 197 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Eagle with the Golden Wreath "in 
London 214 



CHAPTER IX 

Other Eagles in England from Battlefields 

OF Spain ....... 240 



CHAPTER X 

In the Hour of Darkest Disaster : 

after moscow : how the eagles faced 

their fate ..... 263 

at bay in northern germany 1813 . 291 

CHAPTER XI 

That Terrible Midnight at the Invalides . 316 



CONTENTS xi 



CHAPTER XII 

PAQB 

The Eagles of the Last Army . . . 345 



CHAPTER XIII 

At Waterloo: 

" ave caesar ! morituri te salutant ! " . 375 
HOW Wellington's trophies were won . 388 

THE LAST ATTACK AND AFTER : THE EAGLES 

OF THE GUARD ..... 405 
THE EAGLES ANNOUNCE VICTORY TO LONDON 424 



CHAPTER XIV 
After the Downfall 432 

Index . . . . . . . . 437 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PoBTE-AiGLE, Imperial Guard, and Grenadier Sergeant 

IN Parade Uniform .... Frontispiece J 

From St. Hilaire's Histoire de la Garde Iwpiriale 

PACING PAGE 

Marshal Mortier . . . . . . . 90 u 

Mab,shal Soult ........ 104 ^■ 

In the uniform of Colonel-in-Chief of the Chasseurs of the Guard 

Marshal Davout ....... 134 . 

Marshal Ney with the Rearguard in the Retreat 

FROM Moscow ....... 282 ^ 

Prom a picture by A. Ivon, at Versailles 
Photo by Alinari 

Napoleon and the "Sacred Squadron" on the way 

TO the Beresina ....... 288. 

From the picture by H. Bellang6 

Napoleon's Farewell to the Old Guard at Fontaine- 

BLEAU ......... 312 >- 

From a print after H. Vernet, kindly lent by Messrs. T. H. Parker, 
45, Wbitcomb Street 

The Fight for the Standard . . . . . 396 ' 

Sergeant Ewart of the Scots Greys taking the Eagle of the 45th at Waterloo 
From the picture by R. Andsell, .V.R.A., at Royal Hospital, Chelsea 

xiii 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 

FACING PAGE 

The Sqttabe of the Old Gttabd at Bay after Waterloo . 412 

From the picture by H. Bellangfe 



La Revxte des Morts . 

From a picture by R. Demoraine. 



MAPS 

OuTLTNE Map of Napoleon's Concentration in rear of 

Ulm, September 27 to October 18, 1805 . . 82 "* 

Sketch Plan of the Positions of the Armies at the 

opening of the Battle of Austerlitz . . 98 ■ 

Sketch Plan of the Battlefield of Eylau . , 154 , 

PLAN of the Battle of Barrosa .... 222 v 

Waterloo. The Charge of the Union Brigade . 394 

Waterloo — ^the Final Phase. Sketch Plan to show 
the attack and the defeat of the columns of the 
Guard . . . . . . . . . 410 

General Map ........ 436 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES 

Alison : History of Europe. 

AVBILLON, PlON DES LOCHES, PeLET, CoMBES, DxT RoTJKE DE 
PAtTLIN, ViONNET, BeRTIN, ThIEION, NOEL, DuPUY, BlAZB» 

St. Chamans, Vigee-Lebeun, etc. : Souvenirs. 

Babbottx, Genebax : War Services. 

Babdin : Dictionnaire de I'Arra^e. 
„ Meraorial de I'Officier. 

Beamish : The King's German Legion. 

Beatjvais : Victoires des FranQais, 1792-1815. 

Berthezene, General : Souvenirs MilitaLres. 

BiGNON : Memoirs of Napoleon's Campaigns. 

BotHLLE : Les Drapeaux Franyais. 

BouRRiENNE : Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

BuGEAiTD, Marshal : Memoirs. 

Byrne, Miles : Memoirs. 

Catalogue : — Heeres Musexun — ^Wien. 
,, Real Armeria — ^IVIadrid. 

Cathcart, Hon. Sir C. : Commentaries — 1812-13. 

Caitlaincourt : Recollections. 

Chambray : History of the Russian Expedition. 

Champeatjx : HonneTxr et Patrie. 

Charboucliere : Dictionnaire de I'Arm^e. 

Charras : Campagne de 1815. 

Chichester and Short : Records and Badges of the British 
Army. 

CoLBORN : United Service Journal (passim) : Regimental His- 
tories (British and French), etc. 

Correspondance Militaire de Napoleon. 

Cotton : A Voice from Waterloo. 

Dalton : The Waterloo Roll Call. 

Das Zeughaus zu Berlin. 

Davout, Marshal : Memoirs. 

De Gonnevelle : Souvenirs Militaires. 

Demmin : Weapons of War. 



xvi LIST OF AUTHORITIES 

Desjardins : Recherches sur les Drapeaux. 
De Suzanne, General : L'Infanterie FranQaise. 
,, ,, La Cavalerie Fran9aise. 

DuCASSE : Visite a 1' Hot el des Invalides. 
DucoR : Aventures d'un Marin de la Garde. 
Dtjmas, M. : Souvenirs Militaires. 

,, Precis des Evenemens Militaires. 

Fantin DES Odoabds, General : Journal. 
Fezensac : Journal of the Russian Campaign — 1812-13. 

,, Souvenirs Militaires. 

FoY, General : History of the War in Spain. 
Gardner, Darsey : Quatre Bras, Ligny, Waterloo. 
Gleig : Narrative of the Battle of Leipsic. 
GoTJRGAUD : Napoleon and the Grand Army in Russia. 
Grose : Military Antiquities. 
Home : Precis of Modern Tactics. 

Hooper : Waterloo : The Downfall of the First Napoleon. 
Houssaye : Napoleon, Homme de Guerre. 

,, Waterloo. 

Jeanneney : Le Glorieux Pass6 d'un Regiment. 
JoMiNi : L'Art de Guerre. 

,, Life of Napoleon I. 

JtJNOT, Marshal : Memoirs. 
Jtjrien de la Graviere : Guerres Maritimes. 
Labaume : History of the Campaign in Russia. 
Lacroix, D. : Les Mar6chaux de Napoleon. 

,, Histoire Anecdotique du Drapeau Fran^ais. 

Lallemand : Les Drapeaux des Invalides — 1814. 
Lamartine : History of the Restoration. 
Lanfrey : History of Napoleon I. 
Lav ALETTE : Memoirs. 
Lejeune : Memoirs. 

Lemonnier-Delafosse : Campagnes de 1810-15. 
Lyden : Nos 144 Regiments de Ligne. 
Macdonald, Marshal : Recollections. 
MacGeorge : Flags and their History. 
Marbot : Memoirs. 

Marbot et De Noirmont : Costvunes Militaires Fran^aiscs. 
Marmont, Marshal : The Spirit of Military Institutions. 
Masson : Cavaliers de Napoleon. 

,, Livre du Sacre de I'Empereiu". 

,, Souvenirs et Recits des Soldats. 

Maxwell, Sir H. : Life of Wellington. 

,, W. H. : Victories of the British Armies. 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES xvii 

Maxwell, W. H. : Peninsular War Sketches. 

Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne. 

Meneval : Memoirs. 

Military Costumes of Europe — 1812. 

Milne : Standards and Colours. 

MoBVAN : Le Soldat Imperial. 

Napieb : History of the Peninsular War. 

Narrative of Captain Coignet. 

Ney, Maeshal : Memoirs. 

Niox, Genebal : Drapeaux at Trophies. 

Odeleben : Napoleon's Campaign in Saxony, 1813. 

[Officially Published] Historiques des Regiments de I'Armde. 

,, „ Publications de la Reunion des Officiers. 

OuDiNOT, Mabshal : Memoirs. 
Pabquin : Campagnes d'un Vieux Soldat. 
Pattison : Napoleon's Marshals. 

Penguilly l'Habidon : Catalogue Mus6e d'Artillerie. 
Potsdam und seine Umgebung. 
Rapp, Genebal : Memoirs. 
Rey : Histoire du Drapeau. 

Robeet, Colonel : Catalogue, Mus6e d'Artillerie. 
Rose : Life of Napoleon I. 
St. Hilaiee : Histoire de la Garde Imp^riale. 

„ Histoire Populaire de Napoleon I. 

Savaey : Memoirs. 
Segue : Au Drapeau. 

,, History of the Expedition to Russia. 

„ Memoirs. 

„ Proces Verbal de la Couronnement de Napoleon. 

Seeuziee : Memoirs, 

Shaw Kennedy, Sib John : Notes on Waterloo. 

Sheeeb, Moyle : Tales of the Wars. 

Shobebl : Narrative of the Battle of Leipsic. 

SiBOENE : Campaign of Waterloo. 
„ Waterloo Letters. 

Sloane : Life of Napoleon I. 

SouLT, Maeshal : Memoirs. 

SouTHEY : History of the Peninsular War. 

Stendhal : Jovirnal and Correspondence. 

Stocquelee : The British Soldier. 

Taylob, Sie Heebeet : Waterloo. 

Thiebault, Baeon : Memoirs. 

Thiebs : Consulate and Empire. 

Wellington : Despatches. 

2 



xviii LIST OF AUTHORITIES 



Wilson, Seb R. : Narrative of Events in Russia, 1812. 

„ „ Private Journal of the Russian Campaign. 

Wood, Sir Evelyn : Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign. 

(Note. — This Ust is approximately complete, representing 
about 90 per cent, of the total of authorities consulted 
and laid under contribution.) 



THE WAR DRAMA OF 
THE EAGLES 

CHAPTER I 

NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor, " by 
Divine Will and the Constitution of the French 
Republic " — Imperator and hereditary Caesar 
of the Republic — on Friday, May 18, 1804. 
Three weeks later it was publicly announced 
in the Moniteur that the Eagle had been adopted 
as the heraldic cognisance of the new regime 
in France. 

Its selection for the State armorial bearing 
of the Empire was one of Napoleon's first acts. 
That the Roman lictor's axe and fasces sur- 
mounted by the red Phrygian cap, with its 
traditions of revolution, which had supplanted 
the Fleur-de-Lis of the Monarchy, and had 
served as the official badge on the standards 
of the Republic and the Consulate, should 
continue under the Imperial regime, was 
obviously impossible. But what distinctive 
emblem should be adopted in its stead ? 



2 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

Napoleon had the question debated in his 
presence at the first seance of the Imperial 
Council of State. He had, it would seem, not 
made up his mind in regard to it. At any 
rate, a few days before the meeting of the 
Council, he had directed a Committee to draw 
up a statement and offer suggestions. 

The matter was brought forward at the first 
meeting of the Imperial Council, held at the 
Chateau of Saint-Cloud on Tuesday, June 12, 
1804, after a preliminary discussion on the 
arrangements for the Coronation, when and 
where it should be held, and what was to be 
the form of ceremonial. The Coronation, all 
agreed at the outset, must take place in the 
current year. Rheims, Aix-la-Chapelle, and 
Paris, in turn, were suggested as suitable places 
for the ceremony, Paris being finally decided 
on ; the scene of the event to be the Champ de 
Mars. Napoleon himself proposed the Champs 
de Mars, with a threefold ceremony there — 
the taking of the constitutional oath, the actual 
coronation, the presentation of the Emperor 
to the assembled people. A brief discussion 
followed on the form of the coronation cere- 
mony, whether it should be accompanied by 
religious rites. It was put forward that, as 
Charlemagne had received his authority from 
the Pope, might not the Pope now be induced 
to visit Paris and personally crown the Em- 
peror ? Napoleon, intervening in the discussion, 



THE GALLIC COCK PROPOSED 3 

made a strong point of the necessity of some 
kind of religious service on the occasion. He 
did not care much, he cynically remarked, what 
religion was selected ; only it must be in 
accordance with the views of the majority of 
the nation. It would be impossible to do 
without some sort of religious observance. In 
all nations, said he, Ceremonies of State were 
accompanied by religious services. As to 
asking the Pope to take part, from his point of 
view, at the moment, the attendance of a Papal 
legate would be preferable. If the Pope himself 
came to Paris, his presence would assuredly 
tend to relegate the Emperor to a secondary 
position : " Tout le monde me laisserait pour 
courir voir le Pape ! " The matter, however, 
as the discussion proceeded, seemed to present 
so many difficulties, that the Council, after 
declaring themselves generally against having 
any religious ceremony at all, decided to leave 
the question for further consideration. 

On that the Council turned to deal with the 
selection of the heraldic insignia and official 
badge of the Empire. 

Senator Cretet, on behalf of the special 
Committee appointed by Napoleon to prepare 
a statement for the Council, presented his 
report. The Committee, he said, had decided 
unanimously to recommend the Cock, the 
historic national emblem of Ancient Gaul, 
as the most fitting cognisance for Imperial 



4 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

France. Should that not find favour with the 
Council, either the Eagle, the Lion, or the 
Elephant, in the opinion of the Committee, 
might well be adopted. Individual members 
of the Committee, added Cretet, had further 
suggested the Aegis of Minerva, or some flower 
like the Fleur-de-Lis, an Oak-tree, or an Ear 
of Corn. 

Miot, one of the members of the Council, 
rose as Cretet sat down, and protested against 
the re-introduction of the Fleur-de-Lis. That, 
he said, was imbecility. He proposed a figure 
of the Emperor seated on his throne as the 
best possible badge for the French Empire. 

He was not seconded, however, and Napoleon 
interposed abruptly to set aside the Com- 
mittee's suggestion of reviving the Gallic Cock. 
He dismissed that notion with a contemptuous 
sneer. " Bah," he exclaimed, " the Cock 
belongs to the farmyard ! It is far too feeble 
a creature 1 " (" Le Coq est de basse cour. 
C'est un animal trop faible ! ") Napoleon spoke 
rapidly and vivaciously. He had not yet, in 
those early days, acquired the impressive Im- 
perial style that he afterwards affected. " His 
language at these earlier Council meetings was 
still impregnated with his original Jacobin 
style ; he spoke frequently, spontaneously, 
familiarly ; monologued at the top of his voice 
(avec des eclats de voix) ; apostrophised fre- 
quently, appearing at times as though overcome 



THE LION— THE ELEPHANT— THE BEE 5 

with nervousness, now almost in tears, now 
breaking out in a frenzy of passion, unre- 
strainedly empliasising his personal likes and 
dislikes." 

Count S6gur, Imperial Grand Master of the 
Ceremonies, suggested the Lion as the most 
suitable emblem : " parcequ'il vaincra le 
Leopard," he explained. 

Councillor Laumond proposed the adoption 
of the Elephant instead ; with for a motto 
" Mole et Mentey The Elephant had a great 
vogue at that day among European heraldic 
authorities as being pre-eminently a royal 
beast. There was a widely prevalent belief, 
on the authority of old writers on natural 
history, that an Elephant could not be made 
to bow its knees. Further, too, the elephant 
typified resistless strength as well as mag- 
nanimity. And had not Caesar himself once 
placed the effigy of the Elephant on the Roman 
coinage ? Nobody else at the Council, how- 
ever, seemed to care for the Elephant. 

Councillor Sim.on objected to Segur's pro- 
position, on the score that the Lion was essentially 
an aggressive beast. 

Cambaceres, ex-Consul and Arch-Chancellor 
of the Empire, suggested a swarm of Bees 
as the most suitable national emblem. It would 
represent the actual situation of France, he 
explained — a republic with a presiding chief. 

Councillor Lacuee supported Cambaceres. The 



6 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

Bee, he added, was the more suitable, in that 
it possessed a sting as well as being a maker of 
honey. 

Cambaceres remarked that he favoured the 
idea of the Bee as typifying peaceful industry 
rather than offensive power. 

The other members took no interest in the 
idea of the Bee, and after some discursive 
talk the Council fell back on the Committee's 
original suggestion of the historic Gallic Cock. 
The general voice favoured the adoption of 
the Cock, and they unanimously voted for it. 

That, however, would not do for Napoleon. 
He sharply refused once more to hear of the 
Cock in any circumstances. He had for some 
minutes sat silent, listening to the discussion 
until the vote was taken. On that he rose 
and banned the Cock absolutely and finally. 

" The Cock is quite too weak a creature," 
he exclaimed. " A thing like that cannot 
possibly be the cognisance of an Empire such 
as France. You must make your choice be- 
tween the Eagle, the Elephant, and the Lion ! " 

The Eagle, however, did not commend itself 
to the Council. That emblem, it was pointed 
out by several members, had been already 
adopted by other European nations. For 
France, such being the case, the Eagle would 
not be sufficiently distinctive. The German 
Empire had the Eagle for its cognisance. So 
had Austria. So had Prussia. So had Poland 



"YOU MUST CHOOSE THE LION!" 7 

even — the White Eagle of the Jagellons. The 
Council was plainly not attracted by the Eagle. 

Lebrun, the other ex-Consul, Arch-Treasurer 
of the Empire, now put in a word again for 
the Fleur-de-Lis. It had been, he said, the 
national emblem of France under all the previous 
dynasties. The Fleur-de-Lis, declared Lebrun, 
was the real historic emblem of France, and 
he proposed that it should be adopted for 
the Empire. 

Nobody, though, supported him, one member. 
Councillor Regnaud, condemning the idea of 
the Fleur-de-Lis as utterly out of date. " The 
nation," added Regnaud, with a sneer, " will 
neither go back to the cult of the Lilies nor to 
the religion of Rome ! " 

At that point Napoleon lost patience. Inter- 
posing to close the discussion, he curtly bade 
the Council to cease from wasting time. They 
must decide on the Lion for the Imperial 
Emblem. His preference was for the figure of 
a Lion, lying over the map of France, with one 
paw stretched out across the Rhine : " II faut 
prendre un Lion, s'etendu sur la carte de France, 
la patte prete a depasser le Rhin." Napoleon 
proposed in addition, by way of motto, beneath 
the Lion-figure, these defiant words : " Malheur 
a qui me cherche ! " 

No more was said on the subject after that. 
The Council submitted forthwith to Napoleon's 
dictation, and, as it would appear, without 



8 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

taking any formal vote, passed to the remaining 
business of the day : the inscription on the 
new coinage and certain amendments to the 
Criminal Code. 

But even then, as it befell, the decision as 
to the national emblem was not conclusive. 
Napoleon changed his mind about the Lion 
shortly after the Council had broken up. The 
Lion as the designated cognisance of the French 
Empire did not last twenty-four hours. Napo- 
leon himself, on the report of the Council 
meeting being presented for his signature, 
definitely rejected the Lion. Fie cancelled his 
own proposition with a stroke of his pen. With 
his own hand the Emperor struck out the 
words " Lion couchant," with the reference 
to the map of France and the Rhine, writing 
over the erasure, " Un Aigle eploye " — an 
Eagle with extended wings. So Napoleon in- 
dependently settled the matter. 

Napoleon, as it would appear, in making 
his ultimate choice of the Eagle, had this in his 
mind. Charlemagne was ever in his thoughts 
at that time as his own destined exemplar. 
The Eagle of Charlemagne, it was now borne 
in upon his mind irresistibly, had a pre-eminent 
claim to be recalled and become the national 
heraldic badge for the new Frankish Empire 
of the West, as having been the traditional 
emblem of Imperial authority in the ancient 
Frankish Empire, the prototype and historic 



WHERE THE ARTIST GOT HIS DESIGN 9 

predecessor of the Empire of which he was 
head. Said Napoleon, indeed, in justifying his 
final adoption of the Eagle : " Elle afiirme la 
dignite Imperiale et rappelait Charlemagne." 

A commission to design the new Imperial 
Eagle " after that of Charlemagne " was forth- 
with given to Isabey (the elder Isabey — Jean 
Baptiste), " Peintre et Dessinateur du Cabinet 
de I'Empereur," whose reputation was at that 
moment at its zenith. The artist, however, 
had no Carlovingian model to draw from, 
and nobody, it would appear, could give him 
any advice. He had to depict " Un Aigle 
eploye" — a spread-Eagle. Discarding heraldic 
conventionalism, he produced the Napoleonic 
Eagle of history ; an Eagle au naturel, shown 
in the act of taking wing. The idea of it Isabey 
took from a sketch he himself had made nine 
years before, in the Monastery of the Certosa 
of Milan, of an eagle sculptured on one of the 
tombs of the Visconti. 

Following on his adoption of the Eagle for 
the cognisance of the Empire at large. Napoleon 
announced that the Eagle would in future 
be the battle-standard of the Army. He had, 
though, as to that Eagle, yet another thought 
in his mind. For his soldiers he desired the 
French Eagle to represent the military standard 
of Ancient Rome, the historic emblem of 
Caesar's legionaries, with its resplendent tra- 
ditions of world-wide victory. That intention, 



10 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

furthermore, Napoleon went out of his way 
to emphasise significantly through the place 
and moment that he chose for the promulgation 
of the Army Order appointing the Eagle of 
the Caesars as the battle-standard of the French 
Empire. The Imperial rescript was dated from 
the Camp of the " Army of the Ocean " at 
Boulogne ; from amidst the vast array of 
soldiers mustered there for the threatened in- 
vasion of England. 

At the same time Isabey's design for one 
Eagle would suffice as a model for the other. 
It sufficiently suggested the Roman type. Like 
Charlemagne, had not Napoleon led his army 
across the Alps ? like Caesar, was he not about 
to lead it across the Straits ? 

" The Eagle with wings outspread, as on the 
Imperial Seal, will be at the head of the standard- 
staves, as was the practice in the Roman army — 
(placee au sommet du baton, telle que la portaient 
les Romains). The flag will be attached at the 
same distance beneath the Eagle, as was the 
Labarum." So Napoleon wrote in his pre- 
liminary instructions from Boulogne to Marshal 
Berthier, Head of the Etat-Major of the " Army 
of England," at that moment on duty at the 
War Office in Paris. 

The Eagle, Napoleon directed, was of itself 
to constitute the standard : " Essentiellement 
constituer Vetendard,'^ were Napoleon's words. 
He set a secondary value on the flag which the 



THE FLAG OF MINOR ACCOUNT 11 

Eagle surmounted. The flag to Napoleon was 
a subsidiary adjunct. 

Flags, of course, would come and go. They 
could be renewed, he wrote, as might be neces- 
sary, at any time ; every two years, or oftener. 
The Eagle, on the other hand, was to be a 
permanency. It was to be for all time the 
standard of its corps : also, to add still further 
to its sacrosanct nature and eclat, every Eagle 
would be received only from the hands of the 
Emperor.^ 

Every Battalion of Foot and Squadron of 
Horse was to have its Eagle, which, on parade 
and before the enemy under fire, would be in 
the special charge of the battalion or squadron 
sergeant-major, with an escort of picked veteran 
soldiers ; " men who had distinguished them- 
selves on the battlefield in at least two combats." 

Exceptional care. Napoleon laid down, was 
to be taken by regimental commanders that 

1 " The Eagle for each standard," said Napoleon, going into 
details with Berthier, " must be made ' strong and light ' — ' II 
convient de la rendre a la fois solide et Ugere.' " " An Eagle 
looking to its left, with wings haK expanded, and with its talons 
grasping a thunderbolt, as in the old Roman standard," was the 
approved design : the bird raeasxiring eight inches from head 
to feet, and in the spread of its wings from tip to tip, nine and 
a half inches. Below the thiinderbolt, as base and support, 
was a tablet of brass, three inches square ; bearing in raised 
fig\jres the number of the regiment. The weight of the whole — 
the Eagle was to be of copper, gilded over — was just three and 
a half pounds avoirdupois, and a stout oaken staff was pro- 
vided, eight feet long and painted bleu imperial, to which the 
sUken regimental colour was attached ; the flag being thirty- 
five inches along the staff and thirty-three lengthwise, in the fly. 



12 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

no harm should befall the Eagle. In the event 
of accident happenmg to it, a special report 
was to be made direct to the Emperor. Should 
it unfortunately happen that the Eagle was 
lost in battle, the regiment concerned would 
have to prove to the Emperor's satisfaction 
that there had been no default. No new 
Eagle would be granted in place of one lost 
until the regiment in question had atoned for 
the slur on its character by either achieving 
" eclatante " distinction in the field, by some 
exceptionally brilliant feat of arms, or by 
presenting the Emperor with an enemy's stan- 
dard " taken by its own valour." 

The silken tricolor flag, as has been said, was 
in the eyes of Napoleon of subordinate account. 
It was to be considered merely as a set-off to 
the Eagle, as merely " Vornement de V Aiglet 
The Eagle, and the Eagle only, must be the 
object of the soldier's devotion. Napoleon paid 
little regard to the flag, beyond as being of use 
for displaying the record of a regiment's war 
career. He would have liked indeed, as it 
would seem, to substitute another flag altogether, 
and went so far as to have designs for a green 
regimental flag submitted to him.^ Prudence, 
however, forbade its introduction, and directions 
were issued that the general pattern of tricolor 

^ The drawings made and laid before Napoleon at Saint-Cloud 
are in existence, preserved among the archives of the Ministry 
of War in Paris. 



THE LEGEND ON THE FLAG 13 

standard in use under the Consulate should be 
retamed, with minor alterations of detail in 
the design rendered necessary in consequence 
of the new constitution of the State. 

The regimental flags would consist of a white 
diamond-shaped centre, with the corners of 
the flag alternately red and blue ; according 
to the pattern authorised two years previously 
by Napoleon as First Consul. Thus the national 
colours would continue to be represented. For 
the Infantry, in the centre of each flag would 
be, on one side, the words " Empire Fran9ais,'* 
with the legend, inscribed in letters of gold, 
" L'Empereur des Francais au — ^ Regiment 
d'Infanterie de Ligne," which would take the 
place of the Republican inscription hitherto 
borne there ; the number of each corps being 
inscribed in the blank space and in a laurel 
chaplet embroidered at each corner of the flag. 
For Cavalry the inscription ran : " L'Empereur 
des Frangais au — ^ Cuirassiers," or " au — " 
Chasseurs " ; and so on for other corps, 
Artillery, Dragoons, and Hussars. 

On the reverse, for corps of all arms, with the 
exception of the Guard, was emblazoned the 
motto " Valeur et Discipline," and beneath it 
the number of the battalion or squadron in 
each regiment. 

Below the numbers was added any Inscription 
of Honour which had been granted to the 
corps, such as, in the case of one regiment, 



14 NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 

" Le 15^ est couvert de la Gloire " ; in the 
case of another, " Le Terrible 57^ qui rien 
n'arrete " ; with others, " Le Bon et Brave 28'" ; 
" Le 75^ arrive et bat I'Ennemi " ; " J'etais 
tranquille, le brave 82*^ etait la " ; "II n'est pas 
possible d'etre plus brave que le 63' " ; 
" Brave 18', je vous connais. L'Ennemi ne 
tiendra pas devant vous " ; and so on. These 
were mostly quotations from " mentions in des- 
patches " made by Napoleon in regard to regiments 
in his famous " Army of Italy," authorised by 
him, at first of his own initiative, and later as 
First Consul, to be recorded as Inscriptions of 
Honour on the regimental colours. The flags 
of other corps bore names of victories of note 
in which the regiments had taken part ; as, 
for instance, " Rivoli," " Lodi," " Marengo." ^ 

1 All armies, as a fact, owe to Napoleon the introduction of 
the practice of inscribing on the colours of a regiment the names 
of battles in which that regiment has won honour ; nowadays 
an essential feature of the war-flags of all nations. It originated 
after Napoleon's first campaign as General Bonaparte, at the 
head of the Army of Italy ; and, together with the inscriptions 
of quotations of passages from his despatches, was introduced 
by him as a device to aid in developing military spirit and a 
sense of esprit de corps among the soldiers. The Directory 
promptly censured the innovating yo\mg general for acting 
without having first referred the matter to Paris. They sent 
orders that all such inscriptions were to be forthwith deleted 
from the flags. Napoleon, however, refused to obey ; and the 
regiments of his Army supported him. One and all protested 
against the removal of their titles to fame, the first appearance 
of which on their flags had been hailed with enthusiasm. In the 
result the Directory deemed it advisable to accept the situation ; 
and after that, in turn, the flags of the regiments of the other 
Republican armies elsewhere were authorised to display similar 



PROPOSED FOR CORONATION DAY 15 

Napoleon overlooked nothing that might add 
to the prestige of his Eagles. Not only would 
he himself personally present its Eagle to 
each regiment, but, further, there would be at 
the outset a general presentation of Eagles in 
Paris to the whole Army, which would be made 
a State event of significance, and form an integral 
part of the ceremony of his Coronation. On 
that Napoleon had insisted, in reply to a technical 
legal objection raised at one of the meetings of 
the Council of State. It was not to be a Parisian 
popular show. He was ready, indeed, he said, 
to transfer the ceremony to Boulogne. " Je 
rassemblerais deux cent mille hommes au camp. 
La j'aurais une population couverte desblessures 
dont je serais sur ! " He gave directions that 
the Presentation of the Eagles should take 
place on the Field of Mars in front of the 
Military School, on the same day as the Corona- 
tion, and should follow immediately after the 
religious service and his actual crowning and 
consecration by the Pope in Notre Dame.^ 

decorations of their own. The practice in due course was 
adopted in the other armies of Europe. 

^ The sending of an invitation to the Pope had been finally 
decided on in July, after a series of protracted discussions in 
the Imperial Council of State. 



CHAPTER II 

THE DAY OF THE PRESENTATION ON THE 
FIELD OF MARS 

The Coronation, Napoleon first proposed, should 
take place in the Chapel of the Invalides, on the 
historic day of the 18th Brumaire (November 9). 
Directly after it he would proceed in Imperial 
State, wearing his crown and robes, to the Field 
of Mars— the Champ de Mars, in front of the 
Military School, a stone's-throw away — there 
to administer the Military Oath of Allegiance 
to the Army and distribute the Eagles at a 
grand review to be attended by representative 
deputations from every regiment of the Army 
from all over the Empire, assembled in Paris for 
the occasion. It was found preferable, however, 
that the Coronation service should take place 
in the Cathedral of Notre Dame instead of at 
the Invalides ; and at a later date. Still, how- 
ever. Napoleon held to his first idea of proceeding 
direct from the Coronation ceremony to the 
Field of Mars. He insisted that the presentation 
of the Eagles should follow as a joint ceremony 
immediately after his own consecration service. 
But there was Josephine to be considered. She 

16 



THE DAY FINALLY FIXED 17 

was to accompany Napoleon throughout. The 
Empress, for her part, on hearing what was 
intended, declared herself physically incapable 
of bearing the strain of the double ceremony, 
and, in the result. Napoleon changed his original 
purpose at the eleventh hour. He consented 
to put off the presentation of the Eagles until 
the following morning. That plan, in turn, had 
to be altered. On the very afternoon of the 
Coronation, on his return to the Tuileries from 
Notre Dame, Napoleon found himself compelled, 
in consequence of the Empress's state of nervous 
prostration after the fatiguing Cathedral service, 
again to defer the ceremony of the presentation 
of the Eagles. The Emperor now fixed the 
following Wednesday, December 5, for the 
" Fete des Aigles,'' as the Army spoke of it — 
three days from then. There was no further 
putting off after that. 

The plans for the muster were drawn up on 
a grandiose and elaborate scale. They provided 
for an immense attendance under arms of, 
according to one account, eighty thousand men ; 
to comprise the Imperial Guard, and the garrison 
of Paris, together with special detachments 
sent to Paris as representative deputations by 
every regiment and corps of the Army, from all 
jover the Empire. Over a thousand Eagles 
altogether were to be presented : two hundred 
and eighty to cavalry regiments ; six hundred 
odd to infantry, artillery, and special corps ; 



18 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

between forty and fifty to the Navy (one for 
the crew of every ship of the Line in commission); 
besides a hundred and eight to the departmental 
legions of the National Guard, the constitu- 
tional militia of Revolutionary France, which 
Napoleon, for reasons of policy, could not pass 
over. Every infantry battalion and cavalry 
squadron, and brigade (or battery) of artillery 
was to have its Eagle. 

Each infantry deputation, from both the 
Imperial Guard and the Line, would comprise 
the colonel or regimental commander, four other 
officers, and ten sous-officiers and men from each 
of the three battalions that at that period made 
up a French regiment of Foot. In all, in ad- 
dition to the regiments of the Imperial Guard, 
one hundred and twelve regiments of the Line 
were to be represented, together with thirty- 
one of Light Infantry, twelve of Grenadiers, and 
one of foreign infantry. A deputation of fifteen 
officers and men was to represent each of the 
hundred and odd cavalry regiments of the 
Guard and Line ; and smaller individual de- 
tachments would represent the various other 
arms and branches of the service appointed to 
receive Eagles. They would all pass before the 
Emperor and receive their Eagles from him 
personally, on behalf of their absent comrades, 
the six hundred thousand men who at that 
moment constituted the active field army of 
France. From every French ship of the Line in 



THE WHOLE ARMY REPRESENTED 19 

commission there would in like manner attend 
ten officers and men. 

From far and near the detachments of soldiers 
and sailors converged on the capital, marching 
some of them hundreds of miles from the most 
distant frontier garrisons of the Empire, and 
being several weeks on the road. The deputa- 
tions of the First Army Corps, for instance, part 
of which was stationed in Hanover, set off early 
in October ; some of its soldiers, quartered 
by the Elbe, and with from four to five hundred 
miles of road before them, started in the last 
week of September. The detachments from 
Italy and the Venetian frontier, for another 
instance, the deputations from the 1st of the 
Line, the 10th, the 52nd, and 101st of the Verona 
garrison, had over eight hundred miles to go, 
and started early in September. Quite an army, 
indeed, was on the move along the highways 
of France during October and November; all 
heading for Paris, marching by day and being 
billeted in the towns and villages by night. 
A huge series of detachments came from the 
camp of the " Army of the Ocean " at Boulogne 
assembled for the invasion of England. Marshal 
Soult, the Commander-in-Chief at Boulogne, 
with Marshals Davout and Ney, preceded them, 
Admiral Bruix, in charge of the Boulogne 
" Invasion Flotilla " of gunboats and transports, 
accompanying Soult. The troops in Holland ; 
the garrisons of the Rhine fortresses, such as 



20 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

Mayence and Strasburg, and of Metz ; that of 
Bayonne on the Spanish frontier ; troops at every 
place of arms and cantonment and regimental 
depot all over France — all sent their deputa- 
tions ; also every outlying camp, every naval 
port along the coast, from the Texel and Antwerp, 
Brest, Rochfort, and L'Orient round to Toulon, 
in the south. 

Orders were given in every case that the 
detachments were each to bring the existing regi- 
mental colours, which, it was understood, were to 
be given up on parade in exchange for the Eagles. 

A roomy expanse of level ground several acres 
in extent, an oblong- shaped area nearly three- 
quarters of a mile in length and six hundred 
yards across, the Field of Mars offered an ideal 
place for a showy military spectacle. Thousands 
of people could look on comfortably at the dis- 
play from the turfed slopes of the twenty-feet- 
high embankment which skirted the Field of 
Mars on three sides, and had been fitted up by 
the municipality with rows of seats in closely 
set tiers. As many as three hundred thousand 
spectators, indeed, could on occasion be ac- 
commodated there. The fourth side of the 
Champ de Mars was bounded by the facade of 
the Ecole Militaire — three great domed blocks 
of buildings connected together and affording 
a grand view of the scene for hundreds of privi- 
leged guests. The entire frontage of the 
Military School to the height of the first-floor 



THE WEATHER ON THAT MORNING 21 

windows was taken up for the Day of the Eagles 
parade by an immense grand-stand, constructed 
to form a series of pavilions for the accommodation 
of the great official personages invited ; with, 
in the centre, in front of the lofty colonnaded 
portico, a magnificently decorated Imperial 
Pavilion, whence Napoleon and Josephine seated 
on their thrones would look on and receive 
the homage of the Army. 

The only thing that was unpropitious was the 
weather. It proved, as far as the weather went, 
an unfortunate change of date. The day of the 
Coronation, December 2 — it was, by the way, 
Advent Sunday — had been cold and trying, 
with lowering clouds overhead, but dry. On the 
Monday, Napoleon's second choice, it was much 
the same out of doors ; and on the Tuesday 
the weather kept fair. Then, however, it 
changed. During Tuesday afternoon the glass 
began to go down ominously and a chilly wind 
from the south-east set in. Towards ten at 
night rain and sleet in incessant showers began 
to fall — typical Frimaire weather, in keeping 
with the character of the " sleety month." 
*' When it did not rain," says somebody, " it 
snowed, and between whiles it rained and snowed 
at the same time." That was what the weather 
was like when Wednesday morning broke ; but 
in spite of it the Imperial programme was to 
be carried out in its entirety, and hundreds of 
thousands of intending spectators braved the 



22 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

discomfort and started early to get a good place 
for witnessing the historic display. 

All Paris turned out early, prepared to sit 
out the day from eight in the morning until 
probably after four in the afternoon, packed in 
dense masses round the Champ de Mars. 

The heavy firing of salvos of artillery soon 
after dawn, from a dozen points all over Paris, 
ushered in the day's doings. The whole city 
was already, as has been said, astir and in the 
streets, making its way to the Champ de Mars. 
Everywhere dark columns of cloaked soldiers, 
horse and foot, artillerymen without their guns, 
were tramping along through the slush and mud 
for their posts ; some to take part on the route 
of the procession, which was to start from the 
Tuileries ; most of them bound for the Field of 
Mars. Along the streets to be passed by the 
Imperial procession the houses were gaily decked 
out with festoons and branches of evergreens, 
or with coloured hangings and drapings. 
Oriental rugs of gorgeous hues and patterns, 
hired or borrowed for the Coronation week, 
hung from most of the windows ; they were the 
favourite form of decoration. Here and there 
flags were seen, but it was not the fashion in 
Paris at that day to fly flags largely on days of 
public rejoicing. 

At ten o'clock the cannon again thundered 
out an Imperial salute — a hundred and one guns. 
All knew what that was for, and there was 3\> 



MURAT COMMANDS THE PARADE 28 

hush of expectation all over Paris. The guns 
meant that the Emperor had started ; that the 
Imperial State procession had left the Tuileries. 
At that moment the chilly drizzle of sleet was 
still coming down, but the universal enthusiasm 
rose superior to the wet and cold. No weather 
could damp the anticipations of the excited 
Parisians over the Imperial spectacle. 

On the Champ de Mars, as the guns began to 
fire, the soldiers — all long since in their places 
drawn up in closely massed columns, that ranged 
right round the parade ground on three sides 
— stripped off and rolled up their soaked cloaks, 
fixed bayonets, and stood to arms. Murat, 
Governor of Paris, Commander-in-Chief on the 
parade, took post in front of the Imperial 
Pavilion before the Ecole Militaire : a gorgeous 
figure in a bright blue velvet uniform coat, 
resplendently embroidered with gold, a lilac 
sash with crimson stripes round his waist ; in 
scarlet breeches braided with gold, purple leather 
Hessians, trimmed and tasselled with gold, with 
gleaming gold spurs and sabre-scabbard ; wear- 
ing a Marshal's cocked hat with crimson ostrich- 
plumes, and mounted on a no less splendidly 
caparisoned charger, with leopard-skin and 
crimson and gold saddle- trappings. A brilliant 
entourage of staff officers and dandy aides de 
camp, daintily attired in pearl-grey uniforms, 
with silver lace, or in crimson and green and 
gold, clustered in rear of their chief. 



24 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

Simultaneously, the massed bands of the 
Imperial Guard, who had been playing national 
airs and popular music at times during the past 
hour, formed to the front near by. 

For the time being, until after the Emperor 
should arrive and take his seat on the throne, 
the troops on parade, comprising the Army 
deputations to receive the Eagles, remained 
as they had been marshalled on arrival ; ar- 
ranged in a vast fan-shaped formation round 
three sides of the Champ de Mars. The entire 
Imperial Army of Napoleon stood represented 
within that space : Imperial Guard, and Line, 
Cavalry and Artillery ; the sailors of the Navy ; 
the National Guard, — the mise en scene presenting 
a tremendous impression of martial power, as 
all stood formed up in close order, in their full- 
dress review-uniforms, muskets held stiffly at the 
support, bayonets fixed. 

The Imperial procession set off in full State, 
accompanied by much the same display of 
martial pomp that had attended the great 
Coronation progress to Notre Dame of three 
days before. It moved off in a pelting squall 
of sleet ; but, almost immediately afterwards, 
as though Heaven would fain spare the show, 
within a few minutes of the start, the sleet and 
rain ceased and the weather unexpectedly im- 
proved. 

Foremost of all, the mounted Mamelukes of 
the Guard came prancing by, radiant in Oriental 



THE MAMELUKES LEAD THE WAY 25 

garb, their curved scimitars drawn and gleaming ; 
a hundred swarthy figures in scarlet calpacks 
swathed round with white turbans, garbed in 
vivid green burnous-cloaks well thrown back to 
display gold-embroidered scarlet jackets, bright 
straw-coloured sashes, and baggy scarlet trousers. 
Their famous Horse-tail Standard headed the 
squadron. Eight hundred stalwart troopers of 
Napoleon's pet regiment, the corps whose 
uniform he always wore in camp, the Chasseurs 
of the Guard, followed immediately after the 
Mamelukes. An ideal corps d' elite they looked 
as they rode by, in their bristling busbies of 
dark fur topped with waving crimson and green 
plumes, dark green double-breasted jackets, and 
crimson breeches ; with crimson pelisses hanging 
at the shoulder, fur-trimmed and barred with 
yellow braid in hussar style. These two corps 
led the van of the procession. 

The first set of Imperial coaches, with six 
horses each and outriders, thereupon came by. 
They carried mostly State magnificos and 
grandees of exalted position at Court. Coach 
after coach went slowly past at a dignified pace : 
eight — nine — ten — eleven — conveyances, all spick 
and span with new gilding and varnish. The 
twelfth coach, beside which rode a bevy of 
smart equerries, held the Princesses of the 
Bonaparte family : five grown-up ladies and the 
little daughter of Princess Louis. It was 
rather a tight squeeze, for the five Imperial 



26 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

Highnesses were plump and bulky persons, and 
had to be wedged closely ; they brought with 
them too, each lady, several yards of train, 
brocaded stuff with stiff edging of gilt-gimp, 
and thick purple and emerald green velvet 
mantling, which had all to be got in and kept 
from crumpling as much as possible ! What 
they said to one another has not been recorded 
— they were usually free-spoken women with 
comments for most things ready to their tongues, 
like other daughters of the Revolution. At any 
rate this is known. They were in white silk 
dresses, low necked, and, in spite of their close 
packing, shivered with the cold, which they felt 
bitterly. " We were all," related a Lady of 
Honour elsewhere in the procession, " thinly 
dressed, as for a heated ball-room, and had only 
thin Cashmere shawls to keep our shoulders 
warm with." 

Then came more soldiers. The immediate 
escort of the Emperor now appeared. Sitting 
erect and stiff in their saddles, the Carabiniers 
rode up — the senior cavalry regiment of France — 
— eight hundred picked horsemen uniformed in 
Imperial blue and crimson and gold, with helmets 
of burnished brass, over which nodded thick 
tufted crests of crimson wool. The officers, 
superb beings adorned with breastplates of 
gleaming brass, led the regiment. The Cara- 
biniers claimed to be the only corps of the 
Napoleonic Army which could prove continuity 



THE IMPERIAL COACH APPEARS 27 

with the Old Royal Army, if not indeed with 
the historic " Maison du Roi " itself, the House- 
hold Brigade of the Monarchy, owing to a 
curious oversight at the Revolution through 
which the regiment had escaped dispersal. 

Then came the Man of the Hour. 

Napoleon now appeared, in his brand-new 
Imperial State coach. Eight noble bays drew 
it — with harness and trappings of red morocco 
leather studded with golden bees. A marvellous 
vehicle to look at was Napoleon's coach, gleam- 
ing all over with gilded carved work ; its roof 
topped by a great golden crown, modelled " after 
that of Charlemagne," as people told one another, 
upheld by four glistening gilded eagles. The 
State coach sparkled all over, looking as if 
encrusted with gold ; a gleaming mass of carved 
and gilded decorations, representing allegorical 
emblems, heraldic designs, and coats of arms in 
colour. 

Napoleon's head coachman of the Consulate 
days, Cesar, sat on the box, his fat form em- 
bedded in the centre of a luxurious hammer- 
cloth of scarlet velvet, spangled over with 
golden bees. Outriders in green and gold and 
walking footmen beside the horses added their 
part ; also half a score of Pages of Honour, hanging 
on all round at the sides and back of the coach, 
in green velvet coats, gold laced down the seams, 
with green silk shoulder-knots, scarlet silk 
breeches and stockings, and white ostrich-plumes 



28 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

in their jaunty black velvet hats : most of the 
lads future officers of the Guard. At either 
side rode Equerries and Officiers d'Ordonnance, 
in white and gold or pale blue and silver. 

To the crowds that lined the streets the State 
coach was a sight of the day — the coach, for 
some, as much as the Emperor. All Paris, 
of course, had not been able to find room round 
the Field of Mars, spacious as the accommodation 
there was. The pavements all along the streets 
from the Tuileries were packed with a dense 
crowd, which pressed everywhere close up be- 
hind the double rows of Gendarmes and Imperial 
Guardsmen keeping the processional route. 

They shouted " Vive I'Empereur ! " lustily, 
for all had a good view of Napoleon through the 
great glass windows of the coach ; seated inside 
on the right, wearing his ostrich-feathered cap 
of semi-State, a gold embroidered purple velvet 
mantle, and the Grand Master's collar of the 
Legion of Honour, sparkling with costly gems. 

Josephine, a slender figure in ermine cloak 
and white silk dress, sat on Napoleon's left, and 
on the front seats sat Joseph and Louis, side 
by side — the elder brother sleek and smiling, 
wrapped up in a poppy-red cloak as Grand 
Elector of the Empire ; Louis Bonaparte wearing 
his blue velvet Constable's mantle over the 
brass breastplate of the Colonel-in-Chief of the 
Carabiniers, to which rank Napoleon had specially 
promoted Louis, with the idea of maintaining 



CHIEFS OF THE " MAISON MILITAIRE " 2d 

an old tradition of the Monarchy that the titular 
Commander of the Carabiniers should always 
be a Prince of the Blood, " Frhe du Roi.'' 

Napoleon's Imperial Standard was borne 
immediately after the State coach ; a crowned 
eagle heading the staff ; the flag a silken tricolor, 
richly fringed with gold and bespangled with 
golden bees. 

Four of the Marshals, readily recognised by 
their scarlet ostrich-plumes and gold-tipped 
batons of command, attended the Standard, and, 
as Colonels-General of the Imperial Guard, led 
the Imperial Military Household, the "Maison 
Militaire de I'Empereur." The four were : 
Davout, titular chief of the Grenadiers of the 
Guard ; Soult, Colonel-General of the Chasseurs ; 
Bessieres, of the Heavy Cavalry ; Mortier, of 
the Guard Artillery. Close behind them four 
other gorgeously brilliant officers of rank rode 
abreast, the Colonels-General of the Cavalry 
of the Army : St. Cyr, of the Cuirassiers, dis- 
dainful and sardonic of mien ; stern Baraguay 
d'Hilliers, of the Dragoons ; good-looking Junot, 
Colonel-General of the Hussars ; and Napoleon's 
son-in-law, the chivalrous Eugene Beauharnais, 
Colonel- General of Chasseurs. A brilliant 
cavalcade of little less resplendent cavaliers, 
the Emperor's aides de camp, all of them Generals 
of Division or Brigadiers, rounded up the 
group. 

Another eye-surfeit of gleaming varnish, gilded 



so ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

carvings, and green liveries continued the 
pageant : twelve other State coaches, six-horsed 
like those in advance ; carrying the personal 
suites of Napoleon and Josephine and the 
Princesses, Court Chamberlains and similar gold- 
embroidered functionaries, Ladies of the Palace 
and " Officers of the Crown." The procession 
ended after them ; the rear being brought up 
by the Mounted Grenadiers of the Guard, 
strapping troopers in huge bearskins — soldiers 
picked for their height and bearing from the 
Cavalry of the Line — and the Gendarmerie 
d'Elite, who formed the Imperial palace-guard. 
More than half the Imperial Guard — number- 
ing, in 1804, ten thousand officers and men — lined 
the streets under arms ; detachments of Grena- 
diers and Velites, Foot-Chasseurs, Veterans of 
the Guard, Marines of the Guard. Through 
double rows of these, all standing with presented 
arms, the procession took its way, passing from 
the Tuileries Gardens, across the Place de Con- 
corde and over the bridge there, to the Esplanade 
des Invalides. Yet another thundering Imperial 
salute from the twenty old cannons of the Batterie 
Triomphale greeted Napoleon at that point ; 
while rows of old soldiers, the maimed veterans 
of Areola and Rivoli and Marengo, shouted 
themselves hoarse, standing ranged in front of 
the Outer Court beside Napoleon's Venetian 
trophy, kept there temporarily, the Lion of St. 
Mark. 



WITHIN THE MILITARY SCHOOL 31 

From the Invalides, by way of the RueTde 
Grenelle, it was not far to the Mihtary School. 

Withindoors at the Ecole MiHtaire a pause was 
made in the Governor's apartments, which 
had been sumptuously furnished for the occasion 
from the Imperial storerooms of the Garde 
Meuble. Napoleon here accepted a number of 
selected addresses from the military delegations. 
One of them was brought by the regimental 
deputation of the 4th Chasseurs stationed at 
Boulogne. It thanked the Emperor in advance 
for the new standard he was presenting to the 
corps, " trusting that the day is at hand when 
we shall be able to contribute towards consolidat- 
ing the splendour of the Empire by planting 
our Eagle on the Tower of London." The 
Emperor also received the congratulations of 
the Ambassadors and Diplomatic Corps. Ten 
hereditary German Princes of the Rhineland, 
visiting Paris for the Coronation, attended at 
the Military School to witness the Presentation 
of the Eagles ; at their head the Prince-Bishop- 
Elector of Ratisbon, Arch- Chancellor of the 
German Empire, the Margrave of Baden, and the 
Princes of Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Homburg. 
Napoleon and Josephine after that withdrew 
to assume their crowns and Imperial regalia 
and pass outside to the two thrones prepared 
for them and standing side by side in the grand 
central pavilion in front. 

The vast array of " guests of the Emperor,'* 
4 



32 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

seated outside, had of course been long since 
in their places, awaiting the advent of their 
Majesties amid surroundings designed on a 
scale of lavish magnificence regardless of cost. 
On either hand pavilions and galleries and 
platforms, canopied and carpeted, draped and 
curtained and hung in crimson and gold, de- 
corated with festoons and banners, and fenced 
with gilded balustrading, covered the whole 
length of the facade of the Ecole Militaire front- 
ing the parade ground. In the centre stood the 
Imperial Pavilion, beneath a canopy of crimson 
silk supported by tall gilded columns. Side 
galleries draped and under awnings led from it 
right and left to two other pavilions, at either 
end of the facade, similarly adorned in lavish 
gorgeousness. Below the galleries extended 
long stands, sloping forward to the ground, 
draped in green and crimson, and packed with 
rows of seats five or six deep. Here, partly 
in the open, sat the provincial Coronation guests 
from the Departments : the local prefects and 
sub-prefects, procurators, magistrates and 
syndics, mayors and councillors, and other 
municipal functionaries, all in gala-day attire 
of every colour, plumes in their hats, and buttons 
and embroidery all over their coats. They 
made a many-hued show in the mass, seen from 
the parade ground. The higher State digni- 
taries had seats under the canopies of the 
galleries, and looked yet more decorative. 



IN THE IMPERIAL PAVILION 8d 

Seated in the pavilions on cushioned chairs were 
the Ambassadors and Foreign Princes, the Senate, 
Corps Legislatif, and Tribunate, High Court 
Judges in flowing robes of flame-coloured silk, 
and velvet-clad " Grand Officers of the Empire," 
in full-dress all. They looked imposing and 
magnificent, but most of them were shivering, 
with damp bodies and numbed fingers. 

The sleet had stopped for the time, but after 
the all-night's downpour of rain and snow the 
seats everywhere were in a sad condition. 
Canopies and cushions, curtains, seats, carpets 
— everything had been drenched through and 
swamped during the night. The discomfort, 
however, was past helping and had to be borne. 
The Imperial Pavilion itself indeed had not 
escaped a wetting, and in parts it was in little 
better condition than the other places. '* Only 
with the greatest diligence," describes one of the 
suite, " had it been possible to keep the thrones 
dry." 

Napoleon's throne, with beside it the throne 
for Josephine, at a slightly lower elevation, stood 
at the front of the Imperial Pavilion. A gilt- 
framed crimson velvet Chair of State was 
provided for the Emperor, with a crowned eagle 
in gilt stucco perched on the back ; made on the 
model of Dagobert's chair on which Napoleon 
had sat during the ceremony of the distribution 
of the Crosses of the Legion of Honour at 
Boulogne. As on that day, so now, trophies of 



84 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

captured battle-flags adorned the back of the 
Imperial da'is, selected from the two hundred 
and odd standards taken in battle by the Armies 
of Italy and Egypt which Napoleon had led in 
person : trophies of Montenotte and Areola, of 
Tagliamento and Lodi, of Rivoli and Castiglione ; 
the red-and-white banner of the Knights of 
Malta ; the green Horse-tail Standard of the 
Beys of Egypt ; Austrian standards won by 
Napoleon at the crowning triumph of Marengo. 

To right and left of the Emperor, on richly 
decorated chairs of ceremony, Joseph and Louis 
Bonaparte and the Princesses were seated. 
The Imperial suites in attendance were grouped 
at the back together with a cluster of court 
grandees, filling most of the spacious platform 
behind the throne. 

In the forefront, at the Emperor's right hand, 
stood a splendid galaxy of stalwart figures — 
the Marshals of the Empire. They stood for- 
ward prominently. For them that was the day 
of days. All must see on such a day the cham- 
pion warriors of France, the renown of whose 
victories had filled the world ! The whole 
eighteen were there — all except one. Marshal 
Brune alone was absent; on service out of 
France as Napoleon's Ambassador at Constanti- 
nople. The group was completed by the four 
'* Honorary Marshals " — the veteran Kellermann, 
the victor of Valmy ; Perignon ; Serrurier ; and 
Lefebvre. 



THE LIEUTENANTS OF THE WAR LORD 85 

Glance for one moment round the main group 
of thirteen, the chosen lieutenants of Napoleon 
the War Lord, as they stand beside their Chief, 
with, arrayed in front, the serried columns of 
the destined victors of Austerlitz. Next to the 
Emperor and the Eagles it is they who on this 
Day of the Eagles are the principal objects of 
interest to the general spectator. 

Let the reader for one moment imagine him- 
self on the Imperial Pavilion, with at his side 
a convenient friend who knows everybody, to 
point the marshals out. 

That short, spare, low-browed, swarthy, 
Italian-faced man, with crafty, pitiless eyes, is 
Massena — " L'Enfant cheri de la Victoire," 
as Napoleon himself hailed him on the battle- 
field ; the very ablest undoubtedly of all the 
Marshals. He knows it too. When the list of 
the Marshals first came out, a friend called on 
Massena to know if it was true that he was one, 
and to congratulate him. " Oh yes, thank you," 
replied Massena in an icy tone, puckering up his 
dark face with a sour look, " I am one ; one of 
fourteen ! " He's Italian in blood and breeding, 
and in his tricky ways ; every point about him : 
but he'd give his soul to be a Frenchman ! 
*' Massene " is what he is always trying to get 
people to call him. And the airs and self- 
importance he assumes — though only like most 
of the others in that, indeed — ever since he 
became " Monseigneur le Marechal " and has 



86 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

had the honour of being addressed as " Mon 
Cousin " by the Emperor ! Just think of it ! 
In the old days, behind the counter of that Uttle 
oUve-oil and dried-fruit shop up a narrow, 
smelly back street at Antibes, plain " Citoyen 
Andre " was good enough ! Just look at that 
thin, pouting chest, gleaming all over with gold 
embroidery, with the broad crimson riband of 
the Legion of Honour slanting across it, and 
the aggressive tilt of his ostrich-plumed hat ! 
Imagine all that being once upon a time just 
a cabin-boy on a Marseilles to Leghorn coaster, 
half-starved and sworn at and cuffed and kicked 
about by a curmudgeonly padrone ! Then fancy 
it a sneaking smuggler, chevied about, and 
crouching along to keep out of carbine shot 
of the Nice douaniers ! After that Sergeant 
Massena of the late King's Royal Italien regiment 
of the Line ! And so to the baton. 

They are most of them rather tete montee 
just now, with their exaltation spick and span 
on them, these demi-gods of war of ours ! Just 
see them in the field, or on the march ; away 
from the Emperor. They stalk ahead in solitary 
grandeur ; each with his own pas seul, keeping 
the lesser creation at arms' length, wrapped up 
in his own dignified importance. Yet only six 
months since their lofty Excellencies were mere 
generals of division, " Citoyen General " this or 
that, each one ; just units among a hundred 
and twenty odd others 1 Nowadays, on the 



TWO FAMOUS HARD FIGHTERS 37 

march, your Marshal rides by himself, forty 
yards ahead of everybody ; his staff have to 
tail off well in rear and keep back ! M. le 
Marechal doesn't deign to open his lips, except 
to give an order. He lives by himself : nobody 
now is good enough to ask to dinner, except 
perhaps another marshal ! No off-duty plea- 
santries nowadays ; no more bon camara- 
derie ; no more telling of Palais-Royal stories, 
as it used to be ; no more cracking of jokes 
beside the bivouac fire. You might as well 
expect a bishop to have a game of marbles ! 
Let a former brother-officer tutoyer a marshal 1 
Poor fellow ! Let him try, if he wants to know 
what a paralysing, rasping, cold-blooded snub 
is, to get a flattening backhander he'll re- 
member as long as he wears the uniform. 

That tall, bull-necked, heavy-featured man is 
Augereau ; " gros comme un tambour-major " ; 
absolutely fearless under fire, kind-hearted to 
those he takes a fancy to, they say, but ordinarily 
a coarse-tongued swashbuckler, with barrack- 
room manners. There too is Lannes, that 
keen-eyed, short man, holding his head as if 
he had a crick in his neck ! He has one, a 
permanent one, the result of a bullet under 
the jaw from a British marine's musket in the 
trenches at Acre. A hot-tempered, fiery, devil- 
may-care fellow is Lannes ; but as cold as ice 
on the battlefield when things look like going 
wrong ! Among friends, chivalrous and generous- 



38 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

hearted to a degree, his men worship Lannes ; 
" the Roland of the Grand Army," some call 
him. That is Moncey : and that very tall and 
erect, dry, rather dense-looking, hawk-nosed 
marshal with the shaggy eyebrows, Mortier. 
Mark Bernadotte there, that shifty-eyed Gascon 
with a sharp nose and thick hair ; of medium 
height, — nobody really trusts him. An in- 
grained Jacobin — strip his arm and you will 
find tattooed on it, indelibly, for life, " Mort 
aux rois " — and a schemer. Napoleon named him 
a Marshal for political reasons mainly ; although, 
no doubt, he has the same soldier-qualifications 
as the rest ; has won a pitched battle or taken 
two fortresses. A cunning, plausible fellow is 
Bernadotte ; with ready smile and a smooth 
tongue. He calls everybody " Mon ami " whether 
he is talking to a brigadier or a bugler. " Que 
diable fait il dans cette galere ? " say a good 
many people of the Commander of the First 
Army Corps. Over yonder stands Bessieres, 
]Murat's great friend ; a gentlemanly enough 
fellow, but at times thick-headed, hardly of the 
mental calibre of his confreres. Yet Bessieres 
is an ideal leader of Horse on the battlefield ; 
as reckless as a lion at bay : you should see him 
head a charge sword in hand ! One of Napoleon's 
pets is he and the only man in the Army who 
sticks to his queue. Bessieres flatly refused 
to cut it off when the order was given last June 
for everybody to copy " Le petit tondu " (" The 



NAPOLEON'S RIGHT-HAND MAN 89 

little shorn one"), as the men call the Emperor, 
and it hangs half-way down his back. 

That dark, sleek-faced, heavy-eyed man is 
Jourdan, Commander-in-Chief once of the Army 
of the Revolution. " The Anvil," some call 
him, he has been so often soundly beaten. 
But, all the same, he was too popular with the 
Army for Napoleon to pass him over. Jourdan 
it was who invented the conscription system. 
He started in life as a linen-draper at Grenoble. 
There is of course, too, Brune, who isn't here 
to-day : but he doesn't count for much. A 
minor-poet and a journalist was he once upon 
a time. He's another of the clever-tongued 
Jacobins the Emperor gave the baton to as a 
sop. 

Look near the Emperor, at that neat athletic 
figure, of middle height : that is " Old Berthier." 
He is from ten to fifteen years older than most 
of the other marshals ; or, in fact, than the 
Emperor himself. Berthier, in fact, is old enough 
to have been a captain in the Army of the ancien 
regime, and can remember how he first smelt 
powder fighting under Lafayette and Washington 
against the British in America. He was a staff 
officer when Napoleon first came to the Ecole 
Militaire here from Brienne, as a boy gentle- 
man-cadet. A heaven-born Chief of the Staff 
is Marshal Berthier, and the Emperor without 
him in a campaign would be like a man 
without his right hand. Every detail goes like 



40 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

clockwork with Berthier at the head of the 
Etat-Major. 

You should see the two of them on campaign, 
working together in the Quartier- General. 
Napoleon will be sprawling on his stomach at 
full length over a huge set of maps which cover, 
spread out, nearly the whole floor of the tent ; 
an open pair of compasses in his hand, a box of 
pins with little paper flag-heads, red, blue, yellow, 
green, at one side, some of them already stuck 
over the map marking the positions of the 
different corps and of the enemy. He has the 
compasses set to scale, to mark off some 
seventeen to twenty miles, which means from 
twenty-two to twenty-five miles of road, taking 
into account the windings. To and fro he 
twists and turns the compasses like lightning 
and decides in an instant the marches for each 
column to arrive at the desired point, all timed 
exactly to the very day and hour with an aston- 
ishing certainty and precision. He calls out his 
instructions in half a dozen words or so, sharply 
snapped out, for Berthier, who all the time is 
standing near, bending down at Napoleon's 
shoulder, notebook and pencil in hand, to take 
down. Old Berthier has a veritable instinct 
for understanding what the Emperor means. 
He can interpret the smallest grunt Napoleon 
makes. He can spin out three or four broken 
ejaculations into detailed orders for an Army 
Corps, all worked out with absolute clearness, 



MARSHAL SOULT 41 

in beautiful language. It is amazing how he 
does it, but he does do it. A staff officer, or 
else Bacler d'Albe, the Imperial Military Carto- 
grapher, the officer in charge of the maps, it 
may be, is all the while also kneeling by the 
pin-box, and has the pins of the right colour 
out and stuck in the maps as fast as the Emperor 
wants them. The instant the Emperor is satis- 
fied, Berthier is off, and with the secretaries 
at work in his own quarters drafting the orders. 
Then, before you know well where you are, a 
dozen estafettes are galloping all over the 
country with the orders — in the case of a very 
important order sometimes three or four staff 
officers each take a copy, to ride by different 
routes so as to mimimise the risk of delay or 
capture. That is the working of Berthier's 
system, and there is not often a miscarriage or 
serious hitch in the delivery. 

And mark Soult, the coming man of the Mar- 
shals when he gets his chance ; a wary old 
dog-fox for an enemy to tackle. A sergeant 
of infantry in the old " Royal Regiment " 
of former days, the old 13th of the Line, 
then a drill-instructor of Volunteers, now he is 
at the head of the Army at Boulogne for the 
descent on England. Hardly even the Emperor 
knows more about tactics than Soult. Note how 
self-possessed and masterful he looks, so cold 
and impassive of demeanour. Those eyes that 
seem to pierce through you, those clear-cut 



42 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

aquiline features, that face like a mask of bronze, 
show the character of the man. You wouldn't 
think though, to see his fine soldier-like figure 
as he stands there, a warrior born to look at, 
that Soult is not only lame from a fall from his 
horse years ago, but has limped from his birth, 
from a club-foot. 

That bald-headed marshal over there is 
Marshal Davout, a dashing subaltern of Dra- 
goons once in the Old Royal Army. A fine 
tactician for a hot place is Davout ; and when 
the fight has been won, no leader so harsh and 
pitiless to the vanquished enemy. He wears 
spectacles on service : he can hardly see ten 
yards in front of his big nose. The ladies are 
very fond of Davout ; he waltzes so nicely. 

And that other there is Marshal Ney ; " the 
Indefatigable " is the Army's name for him. He 
never spares himself, nor the enemy, on the 
battlefield ; but after the last shot there is no 
more generous victor than Marshal Ney. For 
sheer dogged pluck against odds, for simply 
marvellous intrepidity, the world cannot match 
Ney. Stalwart and square-shouldered, he carries 
himself with all the jaunty assurance of manner 
you would expect in perhaps the most dashing 
leader of hussars the Army of France has known. 
He is an Alsatian, born by the Rhine ; a pleasant- 
faced man, with frank grey eyes, curly red hair 
over a broad open forehead. " Red Michael '* 
is one of the soldiers' names for Ney ; and there 



THE £AGLES AWAIT NAPOLEON 43 

is not one of the Marshals for whom his men 
would do more. 

Such, if it may be permitted to describe them 
in this way, is something of what the Marshals 
of Napoleon looked like on the day of the 
Eagle presentation on the Field of Mars. All 
eyes were turned on the Marshals as they stood 
there beside Napoleon ; a brilliant array of 
soldierly figures in their red ostrich-plumed 
cocked hats, richly laced uniforms, gleaming 
brass-bound sword-scabbards and high jack-boots 
with clanking brass spurs. 

From the foot of the throne a grand staircase 
led down to the parade ground, widening out 
with a curving sweep to either side at the foot. 
It terminated there with, flanking the lower 
steps, two gilded statues, designed to represent, 
the one, " France granting Peace," the other, 
" France making War." From top to bottom 
of the stairs and extending at the foot to right 
and left along either side, stood in rows the 
colonels of the regiments on parade, together 
with the senior officers of the National Guard, 
all awaiting the Emperor's appearance on the 
throne. Each bore the new Eagle standard to 
be presented to his own corps. All were at 
their posts as the appointed moment neared, 
while at the same time Murat and his atten- 
dant cavalcade of brilliantly bedecked horsemen 
closed in and formed up in front, so as imme- 
diately to face Napoleon. 



U ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

On either hand of Murat were ranked the 
massed bands of the Imperial Guard, flanked 
by two solid phalanxes of drummers, each a 
thousand strong. Near by these were drawn up 
on horseback, on one side the officers of the Head 
Quarters Staff at the War Office, on the other, 
the staff officers of the army corps of the Marshals. 

Napoleon and Josephine made their entry 
into the Grand Pavilion heralded by a proces- 
sion, the bands of the Guard playing the Coro- 
nation March. Then, to the accompaniment of 
three successive shouts of " Vive I'Empereur ! " 
from the soldiers — the formal greeting to 
Napoleon on parade, in accordance with Army 
regulation — the Emperor seated himself on 
the throne. He was in full Imperial garb, wear- 
ing his Imperial mantle of rich crimson velvet 
studded with golden bees, and the Imperial 
crown, a golden laurel chaplet " after Charle- 
magne." In his right hand he bore the Imperial 
sceptre, a tall silver-gilt wand with an eagle 
surmounting it, also designed, as they said, 
" after Charlemagne." 

Seating himself with Josephine at his side, in 
her State robes and with a magnificent crown 
of diamonds on her head. Napoleon gave the 
order for the proceedings to begin. 

Murat, as Governor of Paris, in immediate 
command of the parade, raised his glittering 
marshal's baton. The bands of the Guard 
ceased playing abruptly. The next moment 



NAPOLEON FACES THE PARADE 45 

the two thousand infantry drums began to beat. 
It was the appointed signal for the detach- 
ments to advance and form up in front of the 
throne. 

At once, at the first roll of the drums, the 
soldiers ranged round the ground began to 
move. 

Wheeling some, counter-marching others, here 
rapidly doubling, there marking time — looking, 
indeed, for the moment, at first, in the mass, 
to the untrained eye of the non-military spec- 
tator like a swarming ant-heap in motion and 
inextricably intermingled — like magic all sud- 
denly appeared in order, a series of columns, the 
heads of which, arrayed at regular intervals, 
were in unison converging concentrically to- 
wards the foot of the grand staircase in front 
of the throne. A dozen paces in rear of where 
Murat stood all halted as one man. There was 
a quick movement of bayonets as arms were 
shouldered ; the action making a glint of flash- 
ing steel in spite of the dull grey light overhead. 

Every sound was hushed as Napoleon rose to 
his feet. He faced the wide-spreading multi- 
tude and gazed silently over them for a moment ; 
standing well forward where all might see him. 
Then he addressed the parade in strong vibrant 
tones which rang out clear and resonant over 
the whole assembly like a trumpet-note. In 
words that seemed to thrill with intensified 
energy he called on the soldiers before him, on 



46 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

behalf of themselves and their absent comrades, 
to take the oath of devotion to the Eagles. 

*' Soldiers ! " he began, his right arm out- 
stretched with an impassioned gesture towards 
the Eagles, whose bearers held them stiffly 
erect, all glancing and gleaming like polished 
gold, the bright-hued silken flags unfurled, 
" behold your standards ! These Eagles to you 
shall ever be your rallying-point. Wherever 
your Emperor shall deem it needful for the defence 
of his throne and his people, there shall they be 
seen ! " 

He paused. Then raising his right hand in 
the air with a swift strenuous movement Napo- 
leon pronounced the oath : 

" You swear to sacrifice your lives in their 
defence : to maintain them by your courage 
ever in the path of Victory ! You swear it ? " 

The vast gathering stood as though spell- 
bound. For one instant all remained motion- 
less and silent, held down as it were by over- 
mastering emotion. 

Then, all together, with one accord, the soldiers 
found their voices. With a thundering shout 
that seemed to shake the air, the Army made 
its response, answering back in one deep chorus : 

" Nous le jurons ! " — " We swear it ! " 

One and all enthusiastically re-echoed the 
words ; while the colonels excitedly brandished 
and waved aloft the Eagles. In a frenzy of 
martial ardour the entire assembly, at the top 



"WE SWEAR IT! WE SWEAR IT!" 47 

of their voices, again and again declaimed, 
*' We swear it ! We swear it I " A wild pro- 
longed outburst of cheering followed, and 
exuberant shouts of '* Vive I'Empereur ! " 

Before the cheering had abated, the drums 
broke in again. The sharp clash and rattle 
recalled all to order instantly. Again a dead 
silence fell over the great host, standing now 
with recovered arms. 

Up once more went Murat's marshal's baton. 
The next moment the dense-set columns were 
standing stock-still like rows of statues, with 
arms at the shoulder. 

Napoleon resumed his seat on the throne, and 
as he did so yet once more a wave of enthusiasm 
swept over the vast array. Redoubled shouts of 
" Vive I'Empereur ! " burst wildly forth, the 
soldiers pulling off their hats or helmets, and 
hoisting them on the points of their bayonets, 
excitedly waving them, while they shouted 
themselves breathless. 

Again the drums rolled, and again order was 
restored. And now the supreme act of the 
drama opened — the formal presentation of each 
Eagle to its own regimental deputation. 

Forthwith the wide-fronted columns, breaking 
swiftly into quarter-column formation, began to 
move, section by section, in turn. Rapidly, 
and, as it almost seemed, automatically, they 
resumed their first formation, extending round 
the Field of Mars on three sides. From front 
5 



48 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

to rear the quarter-columns took up a full mile 
and three-quarters. Ranked in close order, the 
long-drawn-out array of troops on that set off, 
to a stately march from the bands of the Guard, 
to pass along the front of the Military School, 
before the flanking pavilion, and galleries and 
stands. So, in due course, all in turn came 
opposite to the foot of the great stairway ascend- 
ing to the throne. 

Each section, as it came in front of the steps, 
made a pause. The Colonels at the same 
moment were passing in file before Napoleon. 
Each in turn inclined the Eagle that he bore to- 
wards the Emperor. He held the staff at an 
angle of forty-five degrees — the regulation method 
of salute, in accordance with an Imperial order 
issued in the previous July, when the adoption 
of the Eagle as the Army standard was first 
announced. Napoleon on his side, with his 
ungloved right hand, just touched each Eagle. 
The Colonels, then, saluting, turned, one after the 
other, to descend the stairs. At the foot of the 
stairway each delivered over the Eagle to the 
standard-bearer of his regiment, who, together 
with the deputation, was at the spot to receive it.^ 

^ One of the Eagles so presented by Napoleon on that after- 
noon is now at Madrid. It is a trophy that is absolutely unique. 
Upwards of a hundred and thirty of Napoleon's Eagles, the 
spoils of war, now decorate cathedrals, chapels, and arsenals in 
the capitals of Europe ; but there is only one French naval 
Eagle now in existence, the trophy at Madrid ; the Eagle of a 
line-of-battleship named the Atlas. 

Every French line-of-battleship was represented on the Champ 



THE ONLY EXISTING NAVAL EAGLE 49 

With the Eagles in their charge the regimental 
parties moved on. Passing in front of the 
stands and pavilions beyond, all wheeled there, 

de Mars and received its Eagle. "Tous les vaisseaux," to quote 
the words of M. Le Brun, in his Guerres Maritimes de France, 
" 6taient gratifies d'une aigle et d'un drapeau a leur nom, donnas 
par I'Empereur a son coioronnement, ou avaient assist6 et pret^ 
serment des deputations du port et de I'Arm^ Navale ; chaque 
vaisseau avait envoy6 sa deputation composee de trois officiers^ 
trois ofificiers mariners, et quatre gabiei^s ou matelots." 

The Eagle of the Atlas was received on the Field of Mars by 
the ship's deputation of three officers, three warrant officers, and 
four seamen, sent from Toulon, where the Atlas then weis in 
harbour with Admiral Villeneuve's fleet, which Nelson waa 
watching. The Atlas crossed the Atlantic in the Toulon fleet 
with Nelson in piirsuit, returned to Europe, fought in the in- 
decisive battle off Cape Finisterre in July 1805, and was so 
shattered in the fight, in which the ship only just escaped cap- 
ture, that she was left behind for repairs at Ferrol when Villeneuve 
put to sea finally, to meet his fate at Trafalgar. The Atlas had 
to remain there and fell into the hands of the Spaniards in 1808, 
at the time of the national uprising against Napoleon. Thus 
the naval Eagle passed into Spanish possession. 

The crew of the Atlas were taken by surprise, while the ship 
was in dock at Ferrol, by the Spanish regiment of Navarre in 
garrison there when the news of the Rising of May 2 at Madrid 
reached Galicia. They were trapped and pounced down upon. 
The ship was seized by a sudden assault, the officers and men 
being made prisoners to the provincial Junta, before they had a 
chance of concealing or making away with their Eagle. 

In other cases elsewhere, undoubtedly, the naval Eagles were 
somehow disposed of svurreptitiously. It is very remarkable 
that not a single French naval Eagle came into British hands on 
board the thirty odd ships of the line which we captured between 
1805 and 1814 during the war with Napoleon. At Trafalgar, 
according to a French officer on board the French flagship, the 
Biicentaure, they had one. Describing the approach of the 
Victory, at the outset of the battle, says the officer : "A collision 
appeared inevitable. At that moment Villeneuve seized the 
Eagle of the Bucentaure and displayed it to the sailors who sur- 
rounded him. ' My friends,' he called out, ' I am going to 
throw this on board the English ship ! We will go and fetch 



50 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

to pass again round the arena of the Field of 
Mars, until they had reached their former 
stations, and halted, all ranged in the order in 

it back or die ! ' (' Mes amis, je vais la jetter k bord du vaisseau 
Anglais ! Nous irons la reprendre ou mourir ! ' ) Our seamen 
responded to these noble words by their acclamations." Admiral 
Villeneuve, all the same, did not throw any Eagle on board the 
Victory ; nor was one found in the Bucentaure during the forty- 
eight hours that the ship was in our possession after the battle, 
previous to her wreck in the storm at the entrance to Cadi* 
harbour. None too were found on board any of Nelson's other 
prizes. As to that, also, what was done with, or became of, the 
Eagles of the five battalions serving as marines in the French 
fleet at Trafalgar, officers and men of which were taken prisoners 
by us — those of the 2nd of the Line, the 16th, 67th, 70th, and 
79th? 

At the Field of Mars all eyes were on the six hundred and 
fifty officers and men of the Naval Brigade as they marched round 
the arena to receive their Eagles. Soldiers everybody was 
familiar with. There was nothing particular about them which 
had not been seen before. But a French sailor was not often seen 
away from his port ; and to Paris man-of-war's men were things 
quite new and strange. And, besides, were they not " nos braves 
marins," who were going to clear the way for the " Invasion 
Flotilla " and the " Army of England " ; to strike the blow that 
should sweep from the path of the Emperor " ce terrible Nelson ! " 
One and all gazed in wonder at the sailors : the captains in their 
long, swallow-tailed blue coatees barred with gold lace, white 
breeches, and high top-boots ; the sprightly "aspirants," or 
midshipmen, in cut-away jackets and little round hats with 
turned-up brims ; the showy " Marins de la Garde," wearing 
broad-topped shakos edged with yellow braid, over which tall 
red tufts nodded, red-cuffed and yellow-braided blue jackets, 
and blue trousers striped with yellow ; the other sailors of the 
fleet in massed squads, in shiny black flat-brimmed hats, blue 
jackets studded with brass buttons, red waistcoats, red, white, 
and blue striped pantaloons, wide in the leg, " a I'Anglaise," and 
shoes with round steel buckles. Such a sight the good people 
of Paris had never witnessed before, and they gazed at it rap- 
turously with all their eyes, and shouted their loudest " Vive la 
Marine ! " 

There was too, in addition to the sailors, one Eagle deputation 



THE EAGLE OF THE IRISH LEGION 51 

which they had taken post at their first 
arrivaL 

There remained after that the grand finale. 

the strange appearance of which attracted special curiosity and 
interest that afternoon. Everybody gazed in wonder at a 
group of strapping-looking foreigners of all ages who marched 
along by themselves, got up as light infantrymen, with green 
tufted shakos and bright green uniforms, /They belonged to 
one of the Emperor's newest creations ; and were the Eagle 
escort of Napoleon's " Irish Legion." They had come to the 
Field of Mars to receive the only Eagle that Napoleon ever 
gave to a foreign regiment in his service, with a flag designed 
specially for them, of " Irish Green," as it was described, of 
silk, fringed with gold cord, inscribed on one side in letters 
on gold : " Napoleon, Empereur des Fran5ais, k la Legion 
Irlandaise," and bearing on the other a golden harp, uncrowned, 
and the words " L'Independance d'lrlande." Two ex-patriated 
men of good Irish family, refugees escaped from the penalty 
of treason under English law for their part in the Rising 
of '98, seven years before, headed the deputation ; a Captain 
Tennant and a Captain William Corbet. In the ranks of 
the regiment the deputation represented marched other 
Irish refugees, who had shed English blood at Wexford and 
Enniscorthy ; fugitives from political justice before that who 
had had a part in the attempted raids of Hoche and Humbert ; 
" Wild Geese " who had made their flight overseas after the 
fiasco of 1803 ; and a sprinkling of French-born Irish, some of 
whom had worn the red coat of the old Irish Brigade in the 
Royal Army of France, grandsons of the men of Fontenoy. 
Napoleon had enrolled his Irish Legion just a twelvemonth 
before, in view of a descent on Ireland from Brest simultaneously 
with the crossing of the Straits of Dover from Boulogne. At 
the request of those who first came forward to enlist, he had 
uniformed the corps in the " national " green, in place of the 
former red coat which had been the historic colour of the old 
French-Irish regiments ever since James the Second, under the 
Treaty of Limerick, carried over to France the remains of the 
army that had fought for him at the Boyne. The Eagle the Irish 
Legion received on the Field of Mars faced Wellington in Spain, 
and narrowly escaped falling into Bliicher's hands in Germany in 
1813. It was hidden away after Fontainebleau, and reappeared 
during the " Hundred Days," finally to disappear after Waterloo 



52 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

The March Past of the Eagle detachments before 
Napoleon now came on, designed as the con- 
summation of the day's doings. 

In connection with that, however, there was 
an unfortunate incident. On the Field of Mars 
were displayed also the old Army colours of the 
Consulate, which, as has been said, had been 
brought to Paris at the order of the War Minister 
by the regimental deputations. Paraded to- 
gether with the new Eagles they helped to 
render the scene the more striking ; but their 
presence led to an unforeseen complication, 
and in the end a deplorable contretemps. 

The standard-bearers who had received the 
Eagles were each, in addition, still carrying the 
old regimental flag. They had to carry both. 
No instructions had been given out — by over- 
sight, most probably — as to the giving up of the 
old flags, or what was to be done with them. 

It may have been that Napoleon desired that 
the standards of the Consulate and the Eagles 
of the Empire should be displayed together 
on that day. None knew better than he the 
deep attachment of the older men in the ranks 
for their former battle-flags. Some of the old 
soldiers, indeed, even there on the Field of Mars, 
as we are told, were unable to restrain their 
feelings at the idea of having to part that day 
from their old colours. *' More than one tear 
was shed," relates an officer, " amidst all the 
cheering and shouts of ' Vive I'Empereur ! ' " 



ALL DID NOT WANT THE EAGLES 53 

Enthusiastically as most of the soldiers might 
welcome the new Eagles in the presence of the 
Emperor, all did not desire to part with colours 
which had led through the battle-smoke on many 
a victorious field of the past, even in exchange 
for the glittering " Cou-cous," as barrack-room 
slang had already dubbed Napoleon's Eagles, 
giving them in advance a soldier's nickname 
that stuck to them as long as the Army of the 
Empire lasted. 

Both sets of standards were carried in the 
march past, which proceeded without incident 
to a certain point. 

It was an effective display of the lusty manhood 
of France, of the pick of the Grand Army in its 
prime ; not yet made chair au canon to gratify 
the ambition of one man. A curious comming- 
ling, too, of fighting costumes did the review 
present for the general spectators ; those of 
yesterday side by side with those of the coming 
time. Three-fourths of the soldiers went by 
wearing the stiff Republican garb of the expiring 
regime, as adopted hastily at the outset of the 
Revolution : the long-skirted coat, cut after the 
old Royal Army fashion, but blue in colour 
instead of white, and with white lapels and 
turn-backs ; long-flapped white waistcoats, 
white breeches, and high black-cloth gaiters 
above the knee, such as their ancestors had worn 
in the days of Marshal Saxe ; the old-style big 
cocked hat, worn cross- wise, or ''en bataille," 



54 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

as the soldiers called it, with a flaunting tricolor 
cockade in front. The new Napoleonic style 
was represented by the Imperial Guard and 
Oudinot's Grenadier Division from Arras and 
the Light Infantry battalions, whose turn out 
in smartly cut coatees faced with red and green, 
with the tall broad-topped shakos pictures of 
the time make us familiar with as the normal 
presentment of the soldiers of the Empire, 
attracted special attention.^ 

During the March Past, Frimaire suddenly 
reasserted itself, and brought about the regret- 
table incident that was to wind up the day. 

The parade was three parts through, when, all 
of a sudden, a tremendous downpour of cold 
rain set in, discomfiting and scattering all 
who were looking on. With the drenching 
effect of a shower-bath the rain commenced to 
pour down in torrents, causing an immediate 
stampede among the general public. The rear- 
most columns of the soldiers had to pass before 
empty benches, tramping along stolidly through 

^ Pigtails, too, were missing ; for the first time at a military 
display of the kind in Paris. Even the soldiers of the Revolution, 
the rank and file, had kept up the old style of clubbed-hair. The 
new regfime, however, had altered all that. " Le petit tondu" 
("The little shorn one"), a camp-fire nickname for Napoleon, 
from his close-cropped head, had made every soldier cut his 
hair short ; by a general order of six months before. The order, 
it may be mentioned incidentally, at first nearly raised a riot 
in the Imperial Guard, and led to a number of duels between 
" les canichons," the " lap-dogs " or " poodles," as the men 
who obeyed the order at the outset were sneeringly dubbed by 
comrades who refused to do so, ^nd the others. 



THE SPECTATORS DISAPPEAR 55 

the mud, " splashing ankle-deep through a sea 
of mud," as an officer put it. 

The spectators one and all disappeared. The 
immense crowd of sightseers left the benches on 
the embankment round the Champ de Mars, 
and fled home en masse. The seat-holders on 
the open stands in front of the Ecole Militaire 
scurried off in like manner. The occupants of 
the pavilions and galleries, half drowned by the 
water that streamed down on them through the 
awnings, quitted their places in haste to seek 
shelter within the building. The downpour 
saturated the canopy of the Imperial Pavilion 
and dripped through. It compelled Josephine 
to get up from her throne and hurry indoors. 
The Princesses promptly followed the Empress's 
example, all except one — ^Napoleon's youngest 
sister, Caroline Murat. Caroline sat the March 
Past out to the end, together, of course, with 
Napoleon himself and the Marshals, and those 
Court officials who had to stay where they were. 
Soaked through, she smilingly remarked that 
she was " accustoming herself to endure the 
inconveniences inseparable from a throne ! " 

Then, at the close of the review, came the 
contretemps. 

After the last Eagle had gone past the throne, 
when Napoleon had left on his way back to the 
Tuileries, as the troops were moving off the 
ground to return to their quarters, unantici- 
pated trouble suddenly arose in connection with 



m ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

the old flags. What happened may best, 
perhaps, be described in the words of an eye- 
witness, a General present on the Field of Mars, 
Baron Thiebault : 

" Immediately after the Emperor had gone 
and the seats all round were empty, finding it 
tiresome to be loaded with the double set of 
standards, all the more so, no doubt, as it was 
raining, the standard-bearers apparently could 
think of nothing better than to rid themselves 
of the superseded flags. They began everywhere 
to throw them down, that is, to drop them where 
they stood in the mud. There they were tram- 
pled under foot by the soldiers as they passed 
along on their way back to quarters." 

The outrage scandalised the older soldiers, 
and very nearly brought about a mutiny among 
some of them. 

" Indignant," to continue in General Thie- 
bault's words, " at such an outrage to national 
emblems which the Army had been honouring 
and defending for thirteen years past, many of 
the men in the regiments began to grumble and 
make angry protestations. Presently oaths and 
violent imprecations burst out on all sides ; 
and then some of the grenadiers became mutinous 
and defiant. They declared that they would 
go back, regardless of the consequences, and 
forcibly recover possession of the old colours." 

The situation speedily became so threatening 
that General Thiebault hastened off to warn 



THE SITUATION JUST SAVED 57 

Murat of what was happening. As he went he 
came across one of the adjutants of the Com- 
mandant of the Military School. On the spur 
of the moment he gave him orders to get 
together what men he could of the party who 
had been keeping the parade ground. Of 
these Thiebault took personal charge and sent 
them round at once to collect the thrown- 
down colours and carry them inside the Ecole 
Militaire. 

Apparently that satisfied the soldiers — anxious, 
most of them, to get out of the wet as soon 
as possible. 

General Thiebault tried after that to find 
Murat, intending to report to him ; but Murat 
had by then left the Field of Mars. In the end 
the General decided, as perhaps the wisest 
course, to refrain from saying anything ; not 
to take official notice of what had happened. 
After all he was not on duty at the parade ; he 
was only in Paris as an invited guest at the 
Coronation festivities. Nobody, as a fact, said 
a word of the affair. By the authorities all 
reference to it seems purposely to have been 
hushed up. Not a hint of anything of the sort 
appeared in the Moniteur, which published a 
fairly full report of the day's proceedings ; not 
a word in any of the other Parisian papers. 

For the soldiers a dinner of double rations at 
the Emperor's expense wound up the Day of the 
Eagles ; for the great personages there was " a 



58 ON THE FIELD OF MARS 

banquet at the Tuileries, at which the Pope and 
the Emperor sat side by side at the same table, 
arrayed in their Pontifical and Imperial insignia 
and waited upon by the Grand Officers of the 
Crown." Afterwards, without delaying in the 
capital, the deputations set off on their return 
to rejoin their regiments. Their arrival at their 
various destinations was celebrated everywhere, 
by Imperial order, by a full-dress parade and 
State reception of the Eagle by each corps ; 
the occasion being further treated as a fete- 
day and opportunity for a general carousal in 
camp or garrison. At Boulogne the regiments 
of the " Army of England " took over their 
Eagles at a grand review on December 23, 
Marshal Soult presiding over the ceremony. 

The old standards of the Consulate, some 
bearing on them the battle-scars of Marengo and 
Hohenlinden, remained where General Thi6- 
bault's assistants had left them stacked, leaning 
up against the wall in one of the corridors of 
the Military School, until they were carted off 
in artillery tumbrils to the central d^pot at 
Vincennes. There, on New Year's Day of 1805, 
they were officially made away with ; burned 
to ashes in the presence of an ordnance depart- 
ment official told off to certify to their complete 
destruction. That was the authorised method 
in France of disposing of the standards of a 
discredited regime ; but all the same it was 
a hard fate for national emblems that had 



THE CLOSE OF THE DAY 59 

waved victoriously over so many a hard-fought 
field. 

Such were the principal scenes and incidents 
of the Day of the Field of Mars when Napoleon 
presented the Eagles of the Empire to the 
Soldiers of the Grand Army. 



CHAPTER III 

in the first campaign : 

Under Fire with Marshal Ney 

The Eagles made their debut on the battlefield 
amid a blaze of glory. Within a twelvemonth 
of the Field of Mars they had swooped irresis- 
tibly across half the Continent, leading forward 
victoriously through the cannon-smoke in com- 
bat after combat, to achieve the crowning 
triumphs of Ulm and Austerlitz. Within the 
twelvemonth they witnessed the overwhelming 
defeat of more than 200,000 foes, the capture 
of 500 cannon, while 120 standards had been 
paraded before them as spoils of victory. 

In the first fortnight of September 1805, 
Austria and Russia, as the protagonists in 
Pitt's great European Coalition against Napo- 
leon, declared war on France, and an army of 
80,000 Austrians traversed Bavaria in hot 
haste, to take post at Ulm by the Danube, 
on the frontiers of Wiirtemberg. There they 
proposed to hold Napoleon in check, until their 
Russian allies, whose advance by forced marches 
tlirough Poland had already begun, could join 

60 



NAPOLEON'S OPENING MOVE 61 

hands with them. After that they would press 
forward in resistless force to cross the Rhine 
and invade France. 

But Napoleon was beforehand with them from 
the outset. Within twenty-four hours of the 
ultimatum reaching his hands he had made 
the opening move in the campaign : the lion, 
whose skin had been sold, had crouched for 
the fatal spring. 

General Mack, the Austrian Commander-in- 
chief, entered Bavaria on September 8. On 
September 1 Napoleon's " Army of the Ocean " 
had struck its tents in Boulogne camp and 
started on its way, with plans laid that ensured 
Mack's overthrow. A hundred and eighty thou- 
sand soldiers were hastening along every high- 
road through Hanover, Holland, and Flanders, 
and in eastern France, towards the great plain 
of central Bavaria, to deal the Austrians the 
heaviest and most resounding blow ever yet 
dealt to a modern army. 

Napoleon, screening his movement by means 
of Murat's cavalry, sent ahead on a wide front 
to occupy the attention of the Austrian out- 
posts, made a bold sweep right round Mack's 
right flank. Before the Austrian general had 
any suspicion that there was a single Frenchman 
on that side of him, the entire French army had 
passed the Danube in his rear, and had blocked 
the great highway from Vienna. Napoleon at 
the first move had cut the Austrian line of com- 



62 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

munication with their base. He had barred 
the only route by which the Russians could 
approach to Mack's assistance. 

That done, swiftly and successfully, while 
Mack, startled and utterly staggered at the 
sudden appearance of the enemy in his rear, 
was hurriedly facing about in confusion, to try 
to hold his ground. Napoleon struck at him 
hard. He hurled attack after attack in force 
on the Austrian flanking divisions, on both 
wings of Mack's army, and broke them up. 
Taking thousands of prisoners and many guns, 
he drove the wreck, a disorganised mass of 
scared and helpless battalions, in rout to the 
walls of Ulm itself. Penned in there, ringed 
round by 100,000 French bayonets, with the 
French artillery pouring shot and shell into 
the doomed fortress from commanding heights 
within short range. General Mack, left now 
with barely 30,000 men, after a despairing 
interview with Napoleon, was terrorised into 
immediate surrender at discretion. 

Amid such scenes did the Eagles of the Field 
of Mars undergo their baptism of fire. Ever 
in the forefront under fire, brilliantly, time and 
again, did those who bore them do their duty. 

It was round the Eagles of Marshal Ney's 
corps, " the Fighting Sixth," that the fiercest 
contests of the campaign centred ; and on every 
occasion they gained honour. 

In the sliarp brush at the bridge across the 



i 



AT THE BRIDGE OF GtJNSBURG 63 

Danube at Reisenburg, near the small town of 
Giinsburg, on October 8, one of the opening 
encounters of the campaign, the Eagle of the 
59th of the Line showed the way to victory. The 
Austrians, whom Ney surprised on the south 
side or right bank, retreating as the French 
approached, had partially broken down the 
bridge before Ney's men could reach the place. 

The Danube flows wide and deep at Reisen- 
burg, and there was no other means of getting 
over. 

Ney had explicit orders from Napoleon to 
cross over and occupy Giinsburg, and to hold 
the river passage. As the 59th, who led the 
attack, got to the bridge, a long and narrow 
wooden structure, the Austrian sappers were 
hard at work destroying it ; covered by a rear- 
guard brigade of infantry and artillery. The 
planking had been ripped away, but most of the 
bridge framework and supporting beams still 
stood. The 59th came up and opened fire, 
compelling the sappers to withdraw. Then a 
hasty effort was made by the pioneers of the 
regiment under fire to repair part of the bridge. 
They made a way across with planks wide 
enough for a few men to scramble over together. 
*' In places only one man could get across at a 
time." 

At once the 59th rushed forward cheering, 
but the concentrated Austrian fire from the 
other side was too hot to face. They were 
6 



64 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

beaten back three times, the dead and wounded 
faUing into the rushing stream below. But 
were they not the 59th ? No other of the re- 
giments following them in rear should have 
the honour of being the first to make the passage ! 
The Eagle-bearer of the 59th, waving the Eagle 
aloft, headed a fourth attack ; with Colonel 
Gerard Lacuee, the colonel of the regiment, 
a distinguished officer and an Honorary A.D.C. 
to the Emperor, beside him. The two led out 
in front, regardless of the storm of bullets round 
them. Colonel Lacuee fell mortally wounded. 
An officer ran forward and carried the Colonel 
back to die on the river-bank, but the Eagle- 
bearer went on. " Soldiers," the brave fellow 
stopped for an instant to turn round and shout 
back to his comrades, " your Eagle goes forward ! 
I shall carry it across alone ! " The men of the 
59th, thrown into a frenzy at the sight of their 
Eagle's peril, rallied instantly to follow. The 
four leading companies held on bravely and got 
across. Then they charged the Austrians at 
the point of the bayonet and drove them back 
into the village. That, though, was not all. 
Fresh Austrians had turned back to help their 
rearguard troops. Firing from the river-bank 
on either side of the village, for a time they 
stopped the other French regiments from cross- 
ing the bridge after the 59th. Austrian dragoons 
and infantry at the same time charged the 
gallant regiment, entirely isolated now on that 



THE EAGLES AT HASLACH 65 

side of the river. But they could not break the 
59th. Forming square, the two battaHons, with 
their Eagles held on high as rally ing-centres, 
kept a host of foes at bay. Three fierce Austrian 
charges did they beat off — and then help 
arrived. A second regiment, the 50th, had by 
then managed to get across the bridge. The 
two regiments maintained themselves there all 
the afternoon until nightfall and then bivouacked 
on the ground they had won until morning, 
'' passing an anxious time, under arms, unable 
to light a fire. Fortunately, in the dark the 
Austrians did not realise our small numbers. 
They were more anxious to cover their own 
retreat." Before daylight the Austrians fell 
back and the passage of the Danube was won. 

There was another morning's work on 
October 11. 

At Haslach, on the north bank of the Danube, 
not far from Ulm, a brigade of Dupont's Division 
of Ney's corps, advancing on that side on its 
own account, was suddenly set on by five times 
its number of Austrians. The brigade was made 
up of three regiments : the 9me Legere (or 
9th Light Infantry), the 32nd, and the 69th. They 
stumbled, as it were, suddenly on the Austrians, 
whereupon General Dupont, who was riding 
with the brigade, on the opposite side of the 
river from the rest of his troops, *' judging that 
if he fell back it would betray his weakness," 
made a dash at the enemy. His daring deceived 



66 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

the Austrians, who believed that he was the 
advanced guard of a large force close behind. 
They held back at first and awaited attack. 
Throwing the 32nd into Haslach to hold the 
village, Dupont boldly charged with the two 
other regiments, and at the first onset made 
1,500 prisoners, numbers equal to a quarter of 
his total force. The Austrians, however, rallied 
and returned to the fight. They brought up 
reinforcements and entrenched themselves in 
the village of Jiiningen, near by, where again 
Dupont attacked them. Five times did the 
9th Light Infantry take and retake Jiiningen 
at the point of the bayonet, their two battalion 
Eagles heading the attack each time. No fewer 
than six officers, bearing the Eagles in turn, fell 
in the fight. " Ces corps ne devaient ^tonner 
de rien," commented Napoleon in praising 
Dupont and his men. 

At Elchingen, a village in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Ulm, the scene of the brilliant 
victory by which Marshal Ney won his title of 
Due d'Elchingen, the Eagles of two regiments 
won distinction, through the individual heroism 
of the officers who, holding them on high, 
— " En haut I'Aigle ! " was the charging cry — 
led the onset that stormed the place.^ 

* Ney rode up to head the 6th Light Infantry at the outset, 
immediately after a chaffing challenge to Murat. The two, 
who had been operating together during the previous days, had 
had some difference over their methods of attack. Said Murat 
arrogantly on one occasion, after Ney had been laboriously trying 



THE EAGLES STORM ELCHINGEN 67 

Ney headed the 6th Light Infantry personally, 
" in full uniform and ablaze with decorations, 
offering a splendid target to the enemy." Ney 
led the 6th with the Eagle of the First Battalion 
carried close at his side. Fifteen thousand 
Austrians with forty guns held Elchingen, and the 
post is described as being " one of the strongest 
positions that could be imagined." The village 
itself, a large place, consisted of " successive piles 
of stone houses, intersected at right angles by 
streets, rising in the form of an amphitheatre 
from the banks of the Danube to a large convent 
which crowns the summit of the ascent. All the 
exposed points on heights were lined with 
artillery ; all the windows filled with muske- 
teers." The village was on the north bank, and 
the river had to be crossed to get to it. 

First the gallant 6th Light Infantry stormed 
the bridge. It had been partly destroyed by 

to get into his brother -marshal's head an elaborate scheme of 
his proposed tactics : "I don't follow your plans. It is my 
way not to make mine till I am facing the enemy ! " Ney, on 
the morning of Elchingen, got his chance to pay Murat back. 
They were together, riding close to Napoleon, with all the staflf 
near by, and not far from the Danube bank. As the guns began 
to open, Ney suddenly turned and laid hold of Murat's arm. 
Giving his colleague a rough shake, before the Emperor and 
everybody, Ney exclaimed : " Now, Prince, come on ! Come 
along with me ! and make youi plans in the face of the enemy ! " 
The astonished Murat drew himself back, whereupon Ney spurred 
up his horse and dashed forward ; " galloping off to the river- 
bank, he plunged into the water up to his horse's belly amidst a 
shower of cannon-balls and grape, to direct the mending of the 
bridge." That done, he galloped on to head the leading colunin 
of attack across the bridge. 



68 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

the Austrians on the day before, and its totter- 
ing arches were now swept by cannon-balls, 
plunging down from batteries on the heights in 
rear, and a tornado of bullets from sharpshooters 
in the houses near the river-side. Fighting their 
way forward step by step, the 6me Legere went 
on. Their Eagle headed the advance. Its 
bearer was wounded, but he proudly brandished 
on high the standard ; its silken flag torn to 
tatters by bullets, and with one wing of the 
Eagle broken by a shot. With the 6th fought 
the 69th of the Line. The two regiments forced 
their way along the steep crooked main street 
up hill, fired down on furiously meanwhile 
from the windows. Parties of men at times 
entered the houses at the sides and fought the 
enemy inside bayonet to bayonet, from floor 
to floor. The 6th and the 69th pressed forward, 
broke down the enemy's resistance, and carried 
Elchingen. The Austrians finally, after a gal- 
lant attempt to hold out in the convent on the 
hilltop, abandoned it as fresh French troops 
came up from across the river. 

On the battlefield, when the fight was over. 
Napoleon, with the Imperial staff round him, 
publicly congratulated Marshal Ney (he named 
him later "Due D 'Elchingen ") in the presence 
of the 6th Light Infantry and the 69th, specially 
paraded at the spot for the occasion. 

The Eagles of Ney, again, were foremost at 
the winning of the final fight at Ulm. They 



I 



THE EAGLES AT ULM 69 

led the furious onrush that stormed the steep 
heights of Michelsberg and Les Tuileries, the 
key of the last Austrian position. Thence Napo- 
leon looked down directly into the fortress ; and 
within an hour of Ney's brilliant final feat the 
French shells, from batteries, quickly galloped up 
to the heights, were bursting in Ulm, carrying 
terror and death into every quarter of the city. 

On that came the surrender of General Mack. 
The curtain next rises on the intensely dramatic 
Fifth Act of the tragedy, the march out of the 
Austrians to lay down their arms. 

In that display the Eagles had their allotted 
place. Before them, brought forward and pro- 
minently paraded, each Eagle in advance of its 
own corps in line, with the whole Grand Army 
ranged in battle order as spectators of the 
scene, the standards of the vanquished foe defiled 
out of the gates of Ulm, and were laid down on 
the ground in formal token of surrender. 

Napoleon proved himself at Ulm a born 
stage-manager. 

Hardly ever before, never in modern war, 
had such a spectacle been witnessed as that 
presented on that chill and cheerless October 
Sunday forenoon, October 20, 1805, in the 
heart of central Germany, beside the banks ot 
the rushing Danube, roaring past, a yellow 
foaming torrent after weeks of autumn rain, 
amid pine-clad summits extending far and wide 
on either hand. 



70 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

Along the lower slopes of the high ground to 
the north and east of Ulm, drawn up in lines 
and columns over a wide semi-circle, stood the 
victorious army ; massed round, as it were, in 
a vast amphitheatre. They formed up by 
army corps, and took post grim and silent, 
drawn up in battle array, with muskets loaded 
and bayonets fixed. The Cavalry with sabres 
drawn were on one side ; the Infantry on the 
other, facing them and leaving a space between, 
along which the Austrians were to pass. Fifty 
loaded cannon, in line along one ridge, pointed 
down on the city. In front, towards the river, 
there rose a small knoll, an outlying spur of 
rock. On that Napoleon took his station 
beside a blazing watchfire which marked the 
spot from far. Accompanying him were most 
of the marshals and the assembled Etat -Major 
of the Grand Army, a numerous and brilliant 
gathering. Immediately in rear stood massed 
the 10,000 men of the Imperial Guard. 

Two army corps, a little way from the rest, 
had a special post of honour. They were drawn 
up at the end of the wide semi-circle of the main 
army nearest the Augsburg gate of Ulm ; im.- 
mediately where the defilading column of cap- 
tives would present themselves before passing 
Napoleon to lay down their arms and standards. 
The two corps were : that on the right, Ney's, 
the Sixth Army Corps, the heroes of the day par 
excellence ; on the left, the Second Corps, Mar- 



MACK SURRENDERS HIS SWORD 71 

mont's, who had been doing notable work else- 
where in the neighbourhood of Ulm. Ney, with 
his personal staff beside him, was on horseback 
in front of the centre of his corps ; Marmont had 
his post in like manner in front of his men. As 
his personal reward for the leading part Ney 
and the Sixth Corps had had in bringing about 
the triumph, that marshal had the special honour 
of being designated to superintend the surrender. 

A few minutes before ten o'clock the French 
drums began to beat, and the regimental bands 
to play. Immediately after that the long- 
drawn-out procession of sullen and woebegone- 
looking Austrian captives began silently to 
trail its way out of the Stuttgart gate of the 
fortress. " Suddenly we saw an endless column 
file out of the town and march up in front of 
the Emperor, on the plain at the foot of a 
mountain." 

General Mack himself headed it, wan-faced 
and pale as the white uniform coat he wore, 
his eyes filled with tears, his head bowed, a 
pitiful and abject figure to behold. After him 
followed eighteen Austrian generals — a sur- 
prising number — most of them as wretched and 
downcast-looking as their chief. ** Behold, 
Sire, the unfortunate Mack ! " was the ill fated 
leader's address to Napoleon, as he formally 
presented his sword. Napoleon, in a mood — 
as well he might be — in that hour of unparal- 
leled triumph, to show courtesy to the fallen 



72 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

foe, desired Mack to keep his sword and remain 
at his side. He said the same to the eighteen 
other generals as, one by one, they came up in 
turn to tender him their swords. He returned 
each his sword and bade them all place them- 
selves near their chief. When all the swords 
had been presented and returned, Napoleon made 
the Austrian generals collectively a short ha- 
rangue. *' Gentlemen," he began, "war has its 
chances ! Often victorious, you must expect 
sometimes to be vanquished ! " He did not 
really know. Napoleon went on, why they were 
fighting. Their master had begun against him 
an unjust war. " I want nothing on the Conti- 
nent," said Napoleon in conclusion, " only ships, 
colonies, and commerce ! " It was on the day 
before Trafalgar that these memorable words 
were spoken. The Austrian generals stared at 
Napoleon blankly, but not one uttered a word. 
" They were all very dull ; it was the Emperor 
alone who kept up the conversation." Then 
they took their stand beside their conqueror 
and looked on at the bitterly humiliating scene 
of the defilade of their fellow soldiers. 

In an almost incessant throng the columns of 
the Austrian army streamed by : white -clad 
cuirassiers ; hussars in red and blue and grey ; 
battery after battery of cocked-hatted, brown- 
garbed artillerymen, riding with or on their 
rumbling dull-yellow wheeled guns ; battalion 
after battalion of white-coated linesmen ; dark- 



THE PARADE OF THE VANQUISHED 73 

green coated jagers ; Hungarian grenadiers, 
and so on. Twenty-seven thousand officers and 
men and sixty field-guns in all defiled past the 
Eagles, proudly arrayed there above them, in 
front of the serried lines of glittering French 
bayonets along the hillsides. For five hours on 
end the host of captives plodded on before the 
rocky brow from which Napoleon surveyed the 
spectacle ; tramping by, their muskets without 
bayonets and unloaded, their cartridge-boxes 
emptied. In several regiments the men main- 
tained a fair semblance of discipline and military 
order ; but the ranks of all were sadly bedrag- 
gled-looking, the white uniforms torn and soiled 
and besmirched with powder-smoke, with many 
of the men hatless, or limping from wounds, or 
with bound-up heads, and their arms in blood- 
stained slings. As had been ordered by Napo- 
leon, they carried with them their standards ; 
no fewer than forty silken battle-flags — for the 
most part cased, but here and there was to be 
seen one not furled, displaying, as though in 
futile defiance, its flaunting yellow folds with the 
double-headed Black Eagle. 

As the Austrian linesmen came abreast of 
where Napoleon stood, the pace of the men 
slackened. Every eye was turned to look at 
" him " ; at the small grey-coated figure on 
foot beside the watchfire, standing near the 
crestfallen group of their own generals, a few 
paces from the bright and brilliant-hued caval- 



74 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

cade of French marshals and the staff. All 
stared at Napoleon, gazing as if under a spell. 
Then, in the midst of it all, this happened. 
Suddenly, as they passed Napoleon, a shout rose 
from among the ranks of the defeated army : " Es 
lebe der Kaiser ! " (" Long live the Emperor ! ") 
The cry burst forth with startling effect. It was 
repeated, and then several men took it up. But 
what did it mean ? " Es lebe der Kaiser! " was 
the national German greeting in salute to their 
own Austrian sovereign as Head of the Empire, 
to the Kaiser at Vienna, the Emperor of Ger- 
many. Did the soldiers who first raised the cry 
intend it for that, or to hail Napoleon, as his 
own men did, with a " Vive I'Empereur ! " ? The 
words bore the same meaning. Or did the men 
fling the words at Napoleon in a sort of bravado, 
as a show of defia,nce ? Some of the Austrians 
assuredly did mean them so ; to relieve the 
breaking strain, the terrible tension of the ordeal. 
At least some of the French officers near Napo- 
leon took that view of it. " As they passed by,'* 
describes one, " the prisoners, seized with wonder, 
with admiration, slowed down in their march 
to gaze at their conqueror, and some cried out 
* Long live the Emperor ! ' but no doubt under 
very different emotions ; some with evident 
mortification." 

From the presence of Napoleon the captive 
army passed to the scene of the act of final 
humiliation : to the place where, midway be- 



GIVING tJP THE GUNS AND HORSES 75 

tween the lines of bayonets of the troops of 
Ney and Marmont, they were to lay down their 
colours and ground their arms. 

The colours were first surrendered, a French 
General, Andr^ossi, formerly Napoleon's Am- 
bassador in London, receiving them, with half 
a dozen staff officers and orderlies, who deposited 
the flags one by one in two commissariat wagons 
drawn up close by. 

It was a moment of the deepest and keenest 
anguish for proud and gallant soldiers. All 
round them on the hillsides most of the French, 
overcome by excitement over the unprecedented 
and amazing spectacle, were by that time almost 
beside themselves, rending the air with exulting 
shouts and cheers. Under the cruel stress of 
the ordeal, as the supreme moment came on, 
the self-possession of some of the Austrians, 
tried beyond endurance, gave way. 

The men of the Cavalry and Artillery bore 
themselves throughout with well-disciplined 
steadiness. As they came to the appointed place 
where groups of French cavalry troopers and 
gunners, told off to take over their horses and 
guns, were standing near the roadside awaiting 
them, they dismounted at the word of command 
from their own commanders and stood back. 
With hardly a murmur from the ranks the 
Austrian troopers unbuckled their swords and 
carbines and pistols, and dropped them in heaps 
at the places pointed out to them. With quiet 



76 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

dignity the officers relinquished their gold- 
embroidered banners into the enemy's hands. 
In grim silence they saw the victors — who there 
at any rate behaved with courtesy and soldierly 
consideration for the feeling of the vanquished 
— step forward to take possession of their horses 
and their cannon. Many of the Austrians had 
tears running down their cheeks ; some stood 
trembling with suppressed passion ; — but all 
preserved order and behaved with complete 
decorum as became disciplined soldiers. 

With others unfortunately, with some of the 
infantry corps, it was otherwise. At the very 
last, before arriving at the place where they 
were to give up their weapons, a number of 
the men in some of the marching regiments 
broke down under the fearful strain of the mo- 
ment and lost their heads. In many regiments, 
no doubt, the soldiers obeyed mechanically, 
acting like men half stunned after a violent 
shock ; they did as they were told, and passively 
grounded their arms to order. But in others 
the final scene was attended by acts of wild 
frenzy, pitiful to behold. In, as it were, a 
paroxysm of exasperation at the disgrace that 
had befallen them, the rank and file of these 
broke out recklessly, and got at once beyond all 
efforts of their officers to control. With one 
accord they began smashing the locks and butts 
of their muskets on the ground with savage 
curses, flinging avv^ay their arms all round, and 



THE ULM TROPHIES FOR PARIS 77 

stripping off their accoutrements and stamping 
on them, trampHng them down in the mud. 
These, though, as has been said, were only some 
of the men ; and in certain regiments. The 
majority of the Austrians bore themselves with 
fortitude and calmness. 

At the end of the afternoon the Imperial 
Guard, headed by their Eagle and band, marched 
into Ulm and through the city, as we are told, 
" amid the shouts of the whole populace." 

So terminated the tragedy of Ulm, in the 
presence of the Eagles on their first triumphant 
battlefield. 

The spoils of the Eagles at all points, as an- 
nounced by Napoleon in the Ulm Bulletin of the 
Grand Army, were 60,000 prisoners, 200 pieces 
of cannon, and, in all, 90 flags. The 40 
standards surrendered at Ulm itself Napoleon 
sent to Paris forthwith— after a grand parade 
of the trophies at Augsburg, in which ninety 
sergeants of the Imperial Guard bore in procession 
the Austrian flags. The Ulm trophies were 
made an Imperial gift for the Senate. *' It is a 
homage," wrote Napoleon, "which I and my 
Army pay to the Sages of the Empire." They 
were the flags, it may be added, which were 
displayed at the head of Napoleon's coffin on the 
occasion of his State funeral in 1840 : they form 
four-fifths of the trophies now grouped round 
Napoleon's tomb. Alone of the trophies of the 
Ulm campaign, and also of the Austerlitz cam- 



n IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

paign which followed it, they escaped destruction 
in the holocaust of Napoleon's trophies that took 
place at the Invalides in March 1814, on the 
night of the surrender of Paris to the Allies. 
How that came to pass will be told later. 

There was a very interesting sequel to the 
Ulm campaign for one of Ney's regiments. A 
brief but brilliant campaign in the Tyrol on 
their own account followed for Ney's men 
immediately after Ulm. 

Entering the Tyrol with two of his divisions, 
Ney attacked and by brilliant tactics overthrew 
the Tyrolese forces and Austrian regulars who 
barred his way in a position among the mountains 
deemed impregnable. The battalion Eagles of 
the 69th gave the signal for the frontal attack 
which stormed the enemy's position. Guided 
by chamois-hunters the soldiers with the Eagles 
scaled the face of a precipitous line of crags 
which overhung in rear the Austrian centre, by 
inserting their bayonets into fissures in the 
rocks and clinging to shrubs and creepers, their 
havresacs tied round their heads as protection 
from the stones that the Tyrolese above showered 
down on them. At the top, driving in the de- 
fenders, they held up the gleaming Eagles in the 
sunlight on the brink of the precipice to the 
marshal below, firing down on the Austrians at 
the same time to demoralise their resistance and 
clear the way for Ney's main effort : "Les Aigles 
du 69me plant^es sur la cime des rochers servirent 



TWO LOST FLAGS ARE FOUND 79 

de signal a I'attacque de front que le Marechal 
Ney avait prepare." 

Innsbruck, the capital of the Tyrol, and the 
head-quarters of the Austrian army corps 
garrisoning the country, was the immediate 
prize of the victory. It was there that this 
incident took place. 

One of Ney's regiments, the 76th, had fought 
in the Tyrol six years before ; in Massena's 
campaign of 1799, in one of the battles of which 
— at Senft in the Grisons, on August 22 — 
two of its battalions lost their colours. An 
officer of the regiment, while visiting the 
arsenal at Innsbruck after Ney's capture of the 
city, came across the two flags there, in tatters 
from bullet-holes, hung up as trophies. He made 
known his discovery, and the place was quickly 
filled with the soldiers of the regiment, eager 
to see the old flags. " They crowded round them 
and kissed the fragments of their old colours, 
with tears in their eyes." 

Ney had the flags removed at once. He re- 
stored them to the custody of the regiment with 
his own hand at a grand parade in the presence 
of the rest of his army, which the marshal 
attended with his staff, all in full uniform. The 
old colours were received with an elaborate dis- 
play of military ceremonial. They were borne 
along the lines while the regimental band played 
a stately march, and the Eagles of both batta- 
lions were formally dipped in salute to them. 
7 



80 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

On receiving Ney's report, Napoleon thought 
fit to give the recovery of the flags a Bulletin 
to itself. Relating how they had been lost in 
battle, and the " affliction profonde " of the 
regiment in consequence, he set forth how they 
had been found and handed back by Marshal 
Ney to the regiment " with an affecting solemnity 
that drew tears from the eyes of both the old 
soldiers and the young conscripts, proud of 
having had their share in regaining them ! " 
" Le soldat Fran9ais," concluded the Bulletin, 
*' a pour ses drapeaux un sentiment qui tient 
de la tendresse ; ils sont Fob jet de son culte, 
comme un present re9u des mains d'une mere." 
A medal was specially struck to commemorate 
the event ; and Napoleon, in addition, specially 
commissioned an artist, Meynier, to paint a 
picture for him of Marshal Ney presenting the 
recovered colours to the regiment. The painting 
is now in one of the galleries of Versailles. 

The Midnight Battle by the Danube 

A startling and dramatic episode of the first 
campaign of the Eagles comes next. It took 
place during the second stage of the war ; in 
the midst of Napoleon's impetuous advance on 
Vienna down the Danube valley after Ulm. 
Intent on dealing a shattering blow at the ad- 
vanced army corps of the Russians, which had 
reached Lower Austria and was making an 



TRAPPED BY NAPOLEON'S FAULT 81 

effort to cover the capital, Napoleon made a 
false move, and left one of the headmost French 
divisions in an exposed position, temporarily 
isolated. It got trapped by the Russians at 
Durrenstein, or Dirnstein, on the north side of 
the Danube, to the west of and about seventy 
miles up the river from Vienna ; and was all 
but annihilated. There was nearly twenty 
hours of continuous fighting, including a night 
battle of the fiercest and most desperate character 
in which three Eagles were temporarily lost ; 
fortunately to be recovered later among the dead 
on the battlefield.^ 

^ Napoleon himself, it so chanced at the outset, heard the 
fierce cannonading from afar, and, becoming suddenly alarmed 
at what might be happening, was thrown into a fever of anxiety 
over it ; into a state of violent agitation. It was on the evening 
of November 11. Napoleon just then was on his way to take up 
his quarters at the Abbey of St. Polten, whence only a few miles 
intervened between him and Vienna. As he was nearing St. 
Polten he was suddenly alarmed by " the smothered, distant 
echo of heavy firing, which was not even interrupted by night." 
So one of the aides de camp on the Emperor's staff, De S^gur, 
describes. *' What unforeseen danger could suddenly have 
overtaken Mortier ? It was almost certainly he who, going 
forward with an advanced guard of five thousand men, had 
unexpectedly come across Kutusoff with forty thousand. It was 
impossible, though, at first, to imagine the destruction of the 
marshal and his unhappy division." 

At St. Polten they listened, and in the end feared for the worst. 

" One could only offer up prayers and await the decision of 
fate ! The wide and deep Danube separated us from the marshal. 
This stream had just delivered over to the enemy one of Mortier's 
generals, who in despair had tried to make his escape in a boat. 
Everything announced a catastrophe : the Emperor no longer 
doubted it. In his anxiety, as he drew nearer to the sovmd of 
the combat, while advancing from Moelkt to St. Polten, the fear 
of a reverse usurped the place of Napoleon's former confidence of 



82 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

It was on an extemporised corps, specially 
placed under the command of Marshal Mortier, 
that the blow fell. 

While Napoleon and the Grand Army in force 
advanced along the south, or right, bank of the 
Danube, Mortier had been detached across the 
river to hold in check any attempt to interfere 
with the main operations from the Bohemian 
side. A body of Austrian cavalry, under the 
Archduke Ferdinand, had managed to cut their 
way through from Ulm at one point just before 
the closing of the net round General Mack. 
With the aid of the local militia levies these 
might prove troublesome on the line of communi- 
cations. To deal with them, three divisions, 
drawn from as many corps, were amalgamated 
as Mortier's special corps, which numbered in 
all between twenty and twenty-five thousand 
men ; Gazan's division, lent by Marshal Lannes ; 
Dupont's, lent by Ney ; Dumonceau's, lent by 
Marmont. To keep Mortier in touch with the 
main body of the army, and that he might be 
reinforced in emergency, a flotilla of Danube 
craft was at the same time improvised, and 

victory. Now, his agitation increasing with the noise of the 
firing, he despatched everybody for news : officers, aides de 
camp ; every officer who happened to be near him. With his 
mind full of Mortier's peril he suspended the progress of the 
invasion. He stopped Bernadotte and the flotilla behind at 
Moelkt. He recalled Murat, dashing on for the gates of Vienna ; 
and Soult, following Murat. Not indeed until three on the next 
afternoon, the 12th of November, was Napoleon's anxiety allayed 
by the arrival of an aide de camp from Mortier." 




^■^oDinkelsbuhl ^ \ 

^>^ ^ViDettingen ^ 

Ellwangeno. o^ , Eichstatt 



^V _ vo ?Jl%-|'°'l';"^^^ ^Monheim ) ' C 

utt;$art O ^^' \ y GmCind \a| >, ^ lt:^-~^ J* ^ 







Donauworthv 






Heidenneim 



// I / 
ngen? ^ / y^ 



Outlioo Mrtp of 

NAPOLEONS CONCENTRATION IN REAR OF 
ULM 

27^'- Sopl. t o I8'i ' Oct. 1805. <V/ B.berach 

French Army Corps i^H 

Cavalry Division C^l 

Austr-ian Army Corps I 1 

Routes of the various Corps > y 

nlhArmitx Mrr shomi in the positions t/i^ occupied in tht last week of SepUmber; 
tfio rrench Harin/i; juU /ir.«cAr</ Uif /thine arrf the Main. 

!t>e Auitrim Ceif>s retained thfir positions pntcticeilly as shown until NapoJeon 
haJftasseJ the Danube in their rear. 



Elchlnj5enPC-;Z/oGunzbur^_-'^ / \\ \^/° 

N' 



V- V/i-'''' Mindelheim 

x_^' Memmingen 



o 
Kempten 




Munich 

o 



Landsberg 



Scale of£ngli sh Miles 

t^ H H H K I ^ 



20 ■JO 



«MMMi«i 



MtoiMrfiMMBi 



rttt^ 



THE DANUBE FLOTILLA STOPPED 83 

placed in charge of the Seamen of the Guard, 
a battalion of whom had accompanied Napoleon 
for the campaign. The flotilla was to keep pace 
with Mortier and link him with Napoleon, 
Mortier crossed at Linz and moved forward ; 
his three divisions each a day's march apart, 
for convenience of provisioning. He marched 
so fast, however, that he outstripped the con- 
necting boats. 

At the moment the fighting opened, the flotilla 
was miles in rear. It had been stopped and its 
progress blocked near Moelkt, unable in the 
swollen state of the Danube to pass the dangerous 
Strudel, or whirlpool, there, raging just then, 
after the heavy autumn rains, with the force of 
a swirling maelstrom. The flooded river had 
made it extremely difficult work all the way, 
even for the picked Seamen of the Guard, to 
navigate with safety the assortment of boats 
and timber rafts, clumsy structures of logs and 
spars lashed together, 160 feet long each, and 
planked over, with cabins on the planks, which 
composed the flotilla. On them, together with 
a quantity of spare stores and ammunition for 
the army, convalescents and footsore men of 
various regiments were being carried, who, it 
was intended, would thus be on the spot to 
reinforce Mortier first of all in case of danger. 

Immediately after passing Diirrenstein, the 
leading division, General Gazan's, numbering 
some 6,000 men, unexpectedly stumbled across 



84 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

part of the Russian rearguard. All unknown to 
Mortier, the Russian army corps which had been 
entrenched in front of Vienna had abandoned 
its position and had hastily withdrawn north 
of the river, crossing a short distance from 
Diirrenstein. 

Mortier, after clearing a narrow and difficult 
pass on the eastern side of Diirrenstein, with 
steep and rocky hills on one hand and the Danube 
on the other, first learned of the presence of 
the enemy by catching sight of the smoke of the 
burning bridge of Krems, which the Russians 
had set fire to after passing over. Then he 
suddenly found his further advance barred by 
troops with guns, who rapidly formed up across 
his path. The Russians took up a formidable- 
looking position, but the marshal decided to 
attack without waiting for Dupont to come up 
with the Second Division, or for the flotilla ; both 
miles in rear. The sight of the burning bridge and 
the apparent haste of the enemy to get across 
the river, it would seem, misled Mortier into 
thinking that the Russians had been in action 
with Napoleon, and were in flight, trying 
to escape. He went at them without pausing 
to reconnoitre. He assumed that they were 
only making a show of defence. The troops 
before him he would sweep aside easily. Then 
he would press on and complete the rout of the 
rest of the Russians, whom he took to be retreat- 
ing in confusion, screened by the force he saw, 



A SURPRISE FOR THE MARSHAL 85 

across his front. Confident of easy success, 
Mortier entered into the fight then and there. 

The sudden rencontre, as has been said, was a 
surprise for the marshal. Half an hour pre- 
viously a battle had been almost the last thing 
in Mortier 's thoughts. His guns were on board 
a number of river boats which were being 
drifted downstream abreast of the troops, the 
artillery horses being led with the marching 
columns along the bank. The boats had been 
requisitioned a few miles back, so as to enable 
the troops to get on faster over the rough stretch 
of road through the Pass of Diirrenstein. The 
guns were hastily disembarked and raced for- 
ward into the firing line in order to stop a for- 
ward movement that the Russians, who promptly 
took advantage of the opportunity offered by 
Mortier being apparently without artillery, 
began by making. 

The Russians came on and quickly increased 
in numbers, to Marshal Mortier's further sur- 
prise. Were those beaten troops in full flight ? 
They began to swarm down to meet the French ; 
heading for the guns as these were being brought 
forward. The fight rapidly became general, and 
charge after charge was made by the Russians 
to carry Mortier's guns. They captured them, 
but were then beaten back and the guns re- 
captured. Twice were the guns taken and re- 
taken. The two French regiments nearest the 
guns, the lOOth and 103rdj defended them with 



86 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

brilliant courage, their four battalion Eagles 
conspicuous in the forefront and repeatedly the 
centre of desperate fighting, as the Russians 
essayed again and again at the point of the 
bayonet to make prize of the gleaming em- 
blems. 

But more and more Russians kept joining in, 
and after four hours of very severe fighting 
the marshal began to get anxious. He had 
gained ground towards Krems, and had made 
some 1,500 prisoners ; but every foot of the 
way had been stubbornly contested, and his 
losses had been serious. 

Mortier after that left the troops, and with an 
aide, de camp galloped back through the pass 
in order to hasten up Dupont. But the Second 
Division was still at a distance. Dupont's men 
were still a long way beyond Diirrenstein and 
could not arrive for some time yet. Mortier 
could only tell them not to lose a moment, and 
then retrace his own steps. On his way back, 
to his amazement, he came upon a second Russian 
column in great strength in the act of debouching 
from a side pass and entering Diirrenstein. It 
had come round by a track among the hills on 
the north to take Gazan's division in rear, and 
interpose between it and Dupont's reinforcing 
troops. At considerable personal risk the mar- 
shal managed to evade discovery by the Rus- 
sians. By following a devious by-path he at 
length got back to where Gazan's division was ; 



TOO LATE TO CLEAR THE PASS 87 

as before, in hot action and slowly forcing the 
Russians back. 

Mortier stopped the advance at once. He 
faced his troops about, and, while keeping off 
his original enemy, retreated ; closing his 
columns and rushing all back as fast as possible 
to repass the defile of Diirrenstein and confront 
the new enemy on the further side, in a position 
he might hold until Dupont could reinforce him. 
But it was already too late. The French 
reached the entrance of the pass on the near 
side to find it already occupied by the Russians, 
who were pouring through in dense masses. 
There were nearly 20,000 of them on that side 
of him and 15,000 on the other, his former foes 
now fast closing in from behind hard on his 
heels. Mortier's reduced ranks numbered barely 
4,000 all told. 

Owing to the high, steep rocks on one hand, and 
the river on the other, it was impossible to push 
past the Russians on either flank. All that could 
be done was to attack in front and try to cut a 
way through. That ; or to surrender ! With 
reckless impetuosity the French attacked, firing 
furiously and flinging themselves on the Russian 
bayonets ; while their rearguard, facing round, 
kept their first foes back. For two long hours 
they fought like that ; their ranks swept by the 
enemy's cannon on each side. At length they 
forced the entrance to the pass : but they could 
get no farther. They had by then lost all their 



88 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

guns but two : but they still had all their Eagles. 
With bullet-holes through some of them, and 
their silken flags shot away or torn to tatters, 
the Eagles did their part. Now they were rally- 
ing-centres ; now they were leading charges. 
There was hardly a battalion in which the first 
standard-bearer had not gone down. 

All were fighting almost without hope, holding 
out in sheer despair as long as they had car- 
tridges left, when, as that dreadful November 
afternoon was drawing to its close, suddenly, 
from beyond the far end of the pass was heard 
the booming of a distant cannonade. The 
soldiers heard it and hope revived. It could 
only be Dupont ! Help, then, was coming ! The 
despairing rank and file took heart again — 
but the hour of rescue was not yet. 

They had four long hours more to go through ; 
every hour making their terrible situation worse. 
At nightfall " our cavalry gave way, our firing 
slackened, our bayonets, from incessant use, be- 
came bent and blunted. The confusion became 
terrible. Things, indeed, could hardly have got 
worse." So an officer describes. The enemy, 
in places, had got right in among them, but 
" our soldiers, being the handier and more agile, 
had an advantage over the great clumsy 
Russians." Here and there " the men were so 
close, that they seized each other by the 
throat." In the midst of the fiercest of the 
fighting the tall figure of the marshal was con- 



" YOUR DUTY IS TO SAVE THE EAGLES ! " 89 

spicuous. He was seen amid the flashes from 
the muskets " at the head of a party of grena- 
diers, sword in hand, laying about him like any 
trooper." 

The Battalion-Eagles of the 100th, with their 
Porte-Aigles and a handful of soldiers, got X3ut 
off together, amid a surging melee of Russians. 
The major of the regiment, Henriot by name, 
the senior surviving officer — ^the colonel of the 
100th, as also the colonel of the 103rd, had 
fallen earlier in the fight — saw what was happen- 
ing and the extreme peril of the Eagles. Calling 
for volunteers, he got together some of his men, 
cut his way through to the Eagles, and rescued 
them. Major Henriot, after that, having saved 
the Eagles for the moment, determined as a last 
resource to attempt a forlorn-hope charge ; to get 
beyond the enemy and reach Dupont with them. 
It might be possible to save them under the 
cover of darkness. One of the Porte-Aigles 
of the 6th Light Infantry with his Eagle, near by 
at the moment, joined the devoted band of men 
that the intrepid major now managed to rally 
round the Eagles of the 100th. With half a 
dozen stirring words Henriot called on them 
to follow him. " Comrades, we must break 
through ! They are more than we, but you are 
Frenchmen : you don't count numbers ! Re- 
member, your duty is to save the Eagles of 
France ! " (" Souvenez vous qu'il s'agit de sauver 
les Aigles Fran9aises ! ") 



90 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

There was a hoarse shout in reply : " We 
are all Grenadiers ! Pas de charge ! " 

They dashed at the Russians, Henriot leading, 
and, after fighting their way through the pass 
and nearly to Diirrenstein, fell to a man. Yet 
the three Eagles did not fall into Russian hands, 
thanks to the darkness. They were found next 
morning by French search-parties under a heap 
of dead, where the last survivors, fighting back 
to back, had fallen while making their final 
stand. 

So desperate, indeed, did things look for the 
French at one time, a little before midnight, 
that some of his staff appealed to Mortier to 
make his escape and get across to the other side 
of the Danube in a boat, " so that a Marshal of 
France shall not fall into the hands of the 
enemy ! " 

But the gallant veteran flatly refused to listen 
to the proposal. 

" No," was his answer, " certainly not ! I 
will not desert my brave comrades ! I will save 
them or die with them ! Keep the boats 
for the wounded," he went on. " We have still 
two guns and some case-shot — rally and make 
a last effort ! " 

Almost immediately afterwards an opportu- 
nity did offer for the marshal to save them. 

Two of Dupont's regiments at that moment 
reached the battle. By persistent exertions, 
outstripping the rest of the Second Division, 




MABSHAL MORTIEB. 



90] 



A DASH IN THE DARK TO HELP 91 

and continuing in the dark, guided by the flashes 
of the guns, they had made their way by a 
goat-path along the steep rocky slopes at the 
side of the defile and taken the Russians barring 
Mortier's retreat in rear. Instantly the new 
arrivals flung themselves hotly into the fight. 
They were the 9th Light Infantry and the 32nd 
of the Line, that old favourite of Napoleon's in 
the days of the Army of Italy, whose flag on the 
Eagle-staff bore, as has been said, the golden 
inscription which Napoleon had placed there — 
" J'etais tranquille, le brave 32me etait la." 

The golden legend was of good omen for 
Mortier. 

Their interposition put the Russian main force 
between two fires, weakening the attack on 
Mortier and compelling a portion of them to face 
about. Its effect was speedily felt, and at 
once ; although a desperate effort by the two 
regiments to break through and join hands with 
Mortier, in which the Eagles of the 9th 
and 32nd were " taken and retaken," was beaten 
back under pressure of numbers. 

The arrival of the two regiments so opportunely 
put heart into all : Dupont's whole division, 
declared the marshal, could not be far off. He 
himself would make an effort to meet him on 
the farther side of the pass. 

" Then," as is described by Napoleon's aide 
de camp. Count de Sdgur, " rallying and closing 
up the remaining troops, he brought up the only 



92 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

two guns left him. One was to point to- 
wards Krems and against Kutusoff's troops ; 
the other Mortier placed at the head of the 
column, in the direction of Diirrenstein. As all 
the drums had been broken he had the charge 
sounded on iron cooking-cans. 

" At that moment the Austrian general, 
Schmidt, who had led the Russian corps from 
Diirrenstein, headed a final charge which was to 
strike a crushing blow and complete the de- 
struction of our column. But Fabvier (the 
colonel in charge of Mortier's artillery) heard 
them advance. Concealed by the darkness, he 
let Schmidt approach quite near. Then he 
suddenly fired the gun on that side, at the 
shortest range, in among the headmost of 
the attacking troops. The discharge threw the 
enemy into confusion and killed their leader. 
Into this bloody opening Mortier and Gazan 
precipitated themselves, overthrowing every- 
thing before them. Diirrenstein itself was re- 
taken in the impetuous dash." 

It was indeed a tour de force ; a sudden reversal 
of the fortunes of the fight. The feat in its 
complete accomplishment surprised even Mortier's 
expectations. " The Marshal, in fact, could 
hardly believe his own success." So an officer 
puts it. But he had done more than burst 
through the toils. As daylight next morning 
showed, the Russians, driven headlong, had 
abandoned six of their guns, and left in the 



THEIR FATE STILL IN DOUBT 93 

hands of the French no fewer than twelve 
standards. Two of them were taken by the 
two Dupont regiments which had so gallantly 
flung themselves on the Russian rear. 

That was as concerned honour and glory. 
As a set off, barely 2,000 remained of Mortier's 
corps of 6,000 men. Two-thirds of the total 
when the roll was called next day were found to 
have fallen on the field. 

Mortier's men regained Diirrenstein, all in 
flames ; set on fire by the Russians as they 
evacuated the village. But where was Dupont 
and his Division ? They had heard Dupont's 
distant guns just before dark ; but except the 
two regiments who had been rushed forward 
independently, ahead of the main body, starting 
immediately after Mortier's visit in the early 
afternoon, no help from Dupont had reached them. 
Gazan's wearied survivors of the midnight battle 
dared not even yet lay aside their arms. The fight 
was not all over. The enemy were still near 
by ; just beyond the outskirts of the village. 
Both the Russian divisions that they had been 
fighting with in front and rear had in the end 
united. Outnumbering Mortier's men as they 
did by ten to one, the Russians would certainly 
turn back and be on them before long with 
re-formed ranks, eager to take vengeance for their 
defeat and the rough handling they had under- 
gone. 

But the end was near. 



94 IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 

Suddenly, from the farther side of Diirren- 
stein, from the direction in which the enemy- 
had fallen back, there came a violent outburst 
of firing. Immediately on that followed sounds 
of shouting. Then there was the trampling rush 
of a great host of men all making for the village. 
" With despair in our hearts we were preparing 
for another battle, when, in answer to our 
challenge of ' Qui vive ? ' came back, with 
electrifying effect, the answer ' France ! ' It 
was Dupont. At last he had arrived to the 
rescue of his Marshal. 

" We recognised each other in the light of the 
blazing houses, and with transports of joy and 
gratitude and cries of ' Long live our rescuers ! ' 
our men threw themselves on the necks of their 
deliverers." 

In that dramatic fashion the battle of Diirren- 
stein reached its close. The Russians fell back 
under cover of the night, retreating up the 
lateral valley-pass, by which way at the outset 
they had worked their way round, guided by the 
Austrian general, Schmidt, to surprise and cut 
off Gazan's division. 

Napoleon, in his great relief at learning that 
Mortier had come through without disaster, 
for once blamed nobody. He knew that he 
himself was most of all to blame, for exposing 
to sudden attack a comparatively weak detach- 
ment of his army in the face of an enemy still 
full of fight, on the farther side of a deep and 



BY WAY OF COVERING THE BLUNDER 95 

rapid river. " It seemed," in Marbot's words, 
" as if no explanation of this operation beyond 
the Danube satisfactory to military men being 
possible, there was a desire to hush up its con- 
sequences." 

By way of covering up his own glaring blunder 
Napoleon heaped praises on the troops engaged. 
He expressed unbounded admiration at the 
stand they had made. In the 22nd " Bulletin 
of the Grand Army," issued from Schonbrunn, 
near Vienna, two days later, the Emperor de- 
clared that " le combat de Diirrenstein sera k 
jamais memorable dans les annales militaires." 
Gazan, he said, had shown " beaucoup de valeur 
et de conduite." The 4me and 9me Legere and 
the 32nd and 100th of the Line, wrote Napoleon, 
" se sent couverts de gloire." 



CHAPTER IV 

ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

AusTERLiTZ, the crowning triumph of the First 
War of the Grand Army, set its cachet to the 
fame of the Eagles. 

Napoleon there lured the enemy on into 
attacking him at apparent disadvantage on 
ground of his own choosing. Then, availing 
himself to the fullest extent of the flagrant 
blundering of his assailants, he struck at them 
with a smashing, knock-down blow from the 
shoulder. 

By making believe that his army was separ- 
ated in detachments, out of touch, and beyond 
possibility of early concentration, and causing 
it to appear further that he had become alarmed 
for his own safety and was on the point of com- 
mencing a retreat, he decoyed them into a 
false move. He tempted the Czar Alexander, 
whose main force had arrived within a few miles 
of Vienna, and was confronting him, into making 
a rash manoeuvre designed to cut his line of 
communications and defeat him before the 
second Austrian army in the field, under the 

96 



LURED ON TO MEET THEIR FATE 97 

Archduke Charles, hastening from the Italian 
frontier to join hands with the Russians, could 
reach the scene. In the confident belief that 
by themselves they outnumbered Napoleon at 
the critical point by two to one, with nearly 
90,000 men to 40,000, the Russians made a 
risky flank march to interpose between Napoleon 
and his base, and drive him in rout into the 
wilds of Bohemia. They began their advance 
suddenly, on Thursday, November 2, but im- 
mediately afterwards wasted two days through 
faulty leadership. Before they could get within 
striking distance of Napoleon he had called in 
his detached corps and had massed 70,000 men 
at the point of danger. Foreseeing the possi- 
bility of the enemy's move, his apparent disposal 
of the various corps had been elaborately 
arranged so as to ensure concentration at short 
notice in case of emergency. 

From hour to hour during Sunday, 
December 1, the Russian army in dense 
columns streamed past within six miles of the 
French position in full view of Napoleon, all 
marching forward in stolid silence, intent only 
on getting between Napoleon and Vienna. No 
counter-move meanwhile was made from the 
French side. Strict orders were sent to the 
outposts that not a shot was to be fired. But 
by the early afternoon all was ready for action. 
Completely seeing through the enemy's plans, 
Napoleon exclaimed in a tone of absolute con- 



98 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

fidence : " Before to-morrow night that army is 
mine ! " 

On Napoleon's right flank, in a strong defen- 
sive position, stood Marshal Davout's corps, 
thrown back at an angle to the main front of 
the army, so as to induce the enemy to extend 
themselves widely on that side before opening 
their attack. Marshal Soult's corps, the most 
powerful in the Grand Army, formed the centre ; 
supported by the Imperial Guard, Oudinot's 
Grenadier Division, and two divisions of Mortier's 
corps. Marshal Lannes' corps, with Berna- 
dotte's, was on the left, as well as Murat's 
cavalry. Napoleon proposed to allow the 
Russian leading columns to circle round his 
right flank and get into action with Davout. 
Then, as soon as they were committed to their 
attack in that quarter, Soult's immense force 
would hurl itself on the Russian centre and break 
through it by sheer weight of numbers. Thus 
the Allied Army would be cleft in two, after 
which Napoleon would only have to fling his 
weight to either side for the enemy to be de- 
stroyed in detail. During Soult's move, Lannes 
on the left flank was to hold in check by a brisk 
attack the Russian right wing and reserves, 
which would prevent assistance reaching the 
centre until too late to save the day. So the 
battle was planned ; so it was fought and won. 

The Allied columns were seen during Sunday 
afternoon to be steadily moving southward 













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THE KEY or THE POSITION 99 

over a high ridge opposite the French camp, 
crowned near the centre by the lofty plateau 
of Pratzen, the key of the position on the Russian 
side. They streamed along from the direction 
of the village of Austerlitz, a short distance away 
to the north-east, from which the battle took 
its name. A tract of low marshy country, the 
valley of the little river Goldbach, four miles 
across, with two or three hamlets dotting it here 
and there, connected by narrow cart-roads, 
divided the two armies. The French position, 
facing eastwards, was on a range of tableland 
along the west side of the valley of the Goldbach. 

Monday morning came, and the "Sun of 
Austerlitz " — so often apostrophised by Napo- 
leon in after days — rose in a cloudless sky above 
the early mists lying dense over the marshy 
ground of the low-lying valley between the 
armies. The dominating crest of the Pratzen 
plateau showed above the mist almost bare of 
troops. On the evening before it had bristled 
with Russian bayonets, glistening in the rays of 
the setting sun. Pratzen, the master-key of the 
battlefield, had been left unoccupied. The 
enemy's corps had taken no measures to hold it 
in their haste to get forward to attack the French 
right wing, and cut Napoleon off. 

Soult's corps — the entire French army had 
been under arms since four o'clock — was ordered 
to descend into the valley before the morning 
mist dissipated as the sun rose. Under cover 



100 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

of the mist Soult was to get as close as possible 
to the foot of the Pratzen Hill, so as to be on 
the spot ready to seize the height immediately 
the battle opened on the right. 

Napoleon waited, standing among the marshals 
on foot near the centre of the position, until 
between seven and eight o'clock. Then sharp 
firing suddenly broke out from the direction of 
Davout's corps, and a few minutes later an 
aide de camp came galloping up with the news 
that the enemy were attacking the right wing 
in great force. " Now," said Napoleon, " is 
the moment." The marshals sprang on their 
horses and spurred off to head their corps. 

So Austerlitz opened. 

Its first brunt, as Napoleon had foreseen, fell 
hard and heavily on the French right wing ; 
but Davout's men there proved well able to 
maintain their ground. The sturdy linesmen on 
that side disputed every foot of the position at 
the point of the bayonet against four times 
their numbers. 

Right gallantly, time and again, did the Eagles 
on that part of the field fulfil their role and take 
their part ; now heading charges, now rallying 
round them the men who had sworn to die in 
their defence. 

The 15th Light Infantry — a corps in the ranks 
of which were many young soldiers, now under 
fire for the first time in their lives — stormed the 
village of Tellnitz, which the Russians had 



"SOLDIERS, I STAY HERE!" 101 

carried in their first rush on the French outposts. 
The leading battahon of the 15th drove the 
Russians out ; and, dashing on beyond the 
village, met a reinforcing Russian column has- 
tening to the spot. They charged it without 
hesitation, but could not break through, and 
then they began to recoil before superior num- 
bers. The Eagle-bearer was shot down, and 
fell badly wounded. He had to leave hold 
of his Eagle, and amid the surging throng of 
soldiers in disorder it was in great danger of 
being trampled under foot and lost. Fortun- 
ately the officer in command. Chef de Bataillon 
Dulong, saw what had happened, and sprang 
from his horse and seized the Eagle. Holding 
it on high with one hand, he shouted to his men 
to stand fast. " Soldiers, I stay here ! " he 
called. " Let me see if you will abandon your 
Eagle and your commander." The act and 
words checked the disorder. The battalion 
rallied at once, re-formed ranks, and made 
head against the enemy until help arrived, when 
the Russians were driven back. 

The Eagle of another battalion in the same 
division of Davout's army corps. General 
Friant's, the 111th of the Line, a little time later 
had its part. The 111th had suffered heavily 
in the earlier fighting, but towards eleven o'clock 
were called on to lead a counter-attack beyond 
the line of fortified hedgerow that the regiment 
was holding, against a fresh Russian column 



102 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

which was advancing with loud shouts and 
bayonets at the charge to storm their position. 
Immediately in front was a wide, open stretch 
of ground, across which a Russian battery, to 
cover the attack, was pouring a tremendous 
fire of shell, the bursting projectiles tearing up 
the ground as if it were being ploughed. Just 
as the order to advance was given, the Porte- 
Aigle fell dead. An old sergeant, Courbet by 
name, took his place. He seized the Eagle and 
looked round, for several of the men were 
wavering. They were unwilling to leave cover 
for certain death, as it looked, on the shell-swept 
space of open ground before them. Courbet 
climbed over the hedge, and, waving the Eagle 
and flag with both hands, stood by himself amid 
the bursting shells, some twenty yards in front. 
" Come on, comrades ! " he shouted — " come on ! " 
Then with the words, " A moi, soldats du lllme ! " 
brandishing the Eagle, he ran straight at the 
fast-nearing Russians. " The effect," says one 
who saw the brave deed done, " was electric." 
The men streamed over the hedge instantly, 
re-formed line in spite of the cannon-balls, and, 
led by the grenadiers of the battalion, charged 
the approaching enemy, broke them, drove 
them before them, and seized the village in 
front, whence the Russians had made their 
advance. 

The Eagle of the 48th, another of Friant's 
regiments, in like manner was rallied in the 



SUDDENLY FIRED ON BY FRIENDS 103 

moment of supreme crisis by the daring of its 
Eagle-bearer. 

The Eagle of the 108th, which regiment was 
fighting near by, all but fell into the enemy's 
hands through a blunder. It was early in the 
morning, at the very beginning of the fight, in 
crossing a marshy strip under cover of the mist, 
to take in flank the Russian attack. In the 
uncertain light another French regiment, the 
26th Light Infantry, one of Soult's regiments, 
moving about a hundred yards on the left of 
Davout's men, mistook the 108th for the enemy, 
and fired heavily into it. The Eagle-bearer 
was among those shot down, and fell with the 
Eagle. This sudden blow from an unexpected 
quarter staggered the 108th. They fell back 
hastily to re-form in rear, leaving their Eagle, 
whose fall had been unobserved in the mist, 
lying beside its dead bearer on the ground. The 
loss was discovered just as another force of 
Russians, who came up in front, reached the 
place ; but before they could carry off the trophy 
a charge forward by some hastily rallied men of 
the 108th recovered the Eagle and bore it back 
to safety. 

So far then with Davout's corps. 

Soult, meanwhile, in the centre, was striking 
hard. His attack, in its effect on the Allied 
Army, was a complete surprise. Soult's advance 
began the instant that the marshal, riding at 
full gallop from the presence of Napoleon, could 



104 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

reach his men. At that moment the third of 
the Russian cohimns in the order of march, press- 
ing ahead to overtake the first and second, and 
join in the attack on Davout, had not long 
descended the southern slope at the foot of the 
Pratzen heights ; while the fourth Russian 
column, a mile or more in rear, was just about 
to ascend the northern slope to cross the Pratzen 
Hill and follow. 

Up the steep western hillside face of the 
Pratzen clambered Soult's regiments. Unseen 
by the enemy at any point, without a shot 
being fired at them, or by them, until just as 
they were nearing the crest-line of the ridge, 
they emerged from the mists of the valley and 
seized the high ground. 

They moved on a front of three divisions. 
Legrand's was on the right, echeloned in the 
direction of Davout's left flank so as to keep 
touch with that marshal. St. Hilaire's was in 
the centre, advancing in a long line of battalions 
in attack formation. Vandamme's division was 
on the left. 

The Allied fourth column caught a glimpse of 
Vandamme's men as they were climbing the 
last ascent, and raced forward to form up and 
bar their way. There were 14,000 troops in the 
column, half Austrians, half Russians ; and 
the Czar Alexander with the Emperor of Austria 
rode with them. 

Attacking at once, the French broke through 




MARSHAL SODXT. 
In. tlie uniform oE Coloiiel-in-Chief of the Chasseurs of the fJuard. 



101] 



GRAPE-SHOT AT THIRTY PACES 105 

the Allied front line, and, after a hard fight — 
for the Austro-Russian regiments, fighting under 
the two Sovereigns' eyes, resisted with desperate 
valour — forced it back on the second line with 
the loss of several guns. 

Again there the Eagles took their part. On 
the right of St. Hilaire's attack, the brigade of 
General Thiebault became separated in the 
fighting with the Russian foremost line. Its 
three regiments — the 10th Light Infantry, the 
14th, and the 36th — ^became separated, and one 
of them, the 36th, was for a time in danger of 
being overpowered by part of the Russian 
third column, which had faced about on hearing 
the firing in rear and was hastening back up the 
hill. Two Russian regiments raced up towards 
them on that side. Some Austrian infantry of 
the fourth column, extending in their direction, 
were at the same time coming at them on the 
left. In front the 36th was faced by two 
Russian batteries, which dashed up, unlimbered, 
and blazed away, firing grape and case shot at 
barely thirty paces ; as well as by some Russian 
dragoons, who made as if about to charge. To 
keep the dragoons off, the leading battalion 
attempted to form square ; but the men, breath- 
less after their rush uphill, were in some disorder 
and for the moment out of hand. The square, 
while yet half formed, was then nearly torn to 
pieces by a staggering discharge of grape, and 
several of the men began to get unsteady. It 



106 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

looked bad for the 36th, when, of a sudden, 
Adjutant Labadie, of the First Battalion, snatched 
the Eagle from its bearer and ran out in front. 
He stopped short and held the Eagle-staff with 
both hands planted firmly on the ground. Then 
he called to the men, in a momentary pause while 
the Russian gunners were reloading : " Soldiers 
of the 36th, rally to the front ! Here is your line 
of battle ! " The men saw him, and obeyed. 
The disorder ceased. Quickly deploying to right 
and left, they dashed at the Russian guns. At 
the same moment the other two regiments of 
the brigade, led by St. Hilaire and the brigadier, 
sword in hand, came up at the pas de charge, 
bayonets levelled. The 10th Light Infantry 
brilliantly repulsed the Austrians on one side : 
the 14th on the other side drove Kamenskoi's 
Russians back down the hill. 

Supporting the 10th Light Infantry was the 
59th of the Line, one of Mortier's corps, of 
Dupont's division, which had been sent forward 
to help in holding the Pratzen heights. Some of 
the Russian dragoons dashed in among them as 
they deployed to follow the 10th. A Russian 
officer cut down the Eagle-bearer and seized the 
Eagle. Sergeant-Ma j or Garnier, the " Porte- 
Aigle," struggled to his feet in spite of his wounds, 
wrested the Eagle back, and with his free hand 
fought with his sword and killed the Russian, 
saving the Eagle. 

On St. Hilaire's left, during this time, Van- 



THE RUSSIAN GUARD COME UP lo? 

damme's division had had to fight its way for- 
ward against the Russians and Austrians of the 
fourth column, several battalions of which, 
with artillery, had rapidly taken post along a 
range of knolls towards the northern edge of the 
Pratzen plateau. Driving back at the outset 
six Russian battalions, which charged forward 
to meet them, springing up from the shelter of 
a dip in the ground, Vandamme's men, " with- 
out firing a shot, with the bayonet only, 
advanced on the main enemy with shouldered 
arms, not replying to the Russian musketry." 
When within forty yards, they halted, fired a 
volley, and dashed in with bayonets lowered. 
The attack was successful beyond expectation. 
The enemy before them were routed, and all 
their guns taken, with many prisoners. Then 
Vandamme received orders to wheel his division 
to the right and take in flank the enemy, at that 
moment in hot fight with St. Hilaire. 

Vandamme was in the middle of the move 
when one of his brigades met with a sudden and 
unexpected disaster. Two battalions belonging 
to the 24th Light Infantry and the 4th of the 
Line, who fought side by side on the extreme 
left of Vandamme's command, were all but 
annihilated. As they were wheeling round, 
the Russian Imperial Guard came up, hurry- 
ing forward from the Reserve, and set on 
them fiercely. It was just to the left of the 
village of Pratzen, as approached from the 



108 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

French side, on the farther side of the plateau. 
The Russian Foot Guards forced the 4th and the 
24th Light Infantry back into some vineyards 
adjoining the village in disorder. The last to 
retire was the First Battalion of the 4th. They 
had hardly gained the edge of the tract of vine- 
yards, when, without the least warning of their 
approach, coming up on their flank and unseen 
in the smoke and turmoil of the contest, a more 
formidable enemy still assailed them. The 
Russian Cuirassiers of the Guard, 2,000 horse- 
men, troopers of the finest cavalry in the world, 
came down on them, and charged them at a 
gallop on the flank. The Grand Duke Constan- 
tine, brother of the Czar, in person led the Cuir- 
assiers. Disaster, hideous, overwhelming, crush- 
ing, for the two hapless battalions — that of the 
24th Light Infantry was, in like manner, caught 
just beyond cover exposed in the open — 
was the instant result. They tried to form 
square at the last moment, but the Cuirassiers 
were on them before they could begin the evo- 
lution. Both battalions were practically hurled 
out of existence within three minutes. 

They were ridden down, trampled on by the 
huge Russian horses, and slashed to pieces 
mercilessly by the giant Russian troopers with 
their long straight swords. Both battalions 
lost their Eagles. That of the 24th Light In- 
fantry was picked up later on the field and 
restored to what was left of the ill-fated corps. 



HOW ONE EAGL£ met ITS FATE iOO 

The Eagle of the 4th was carried off by the 
Russians, and is now in the Kazan Cathedral at 
St. Petersburg. Yet it was lost with honour ; 
bravely defended to the last. The Eagle-bearer 
was cut down. A lieutenant tried to get hold 
of the Eagle and save it ; he, too, was cut down. 
A private then snatched it from the dead 
officer's hands, and was in the act of waving 
it on high when he in turn was sabred and fell. 
The Russians made prize of the trophy at once, 
and it was carried direct to the Czar Alexander 
on the battlefield. 

Napoleon, who had moved up near the fighting 
in the centre, witnessed the disaster with his 
own eyes. 

The corps, as it happened, too, was one he 
had taken an interest in. The 4th of the Line 
had been in favour with him, and he had ap- 
pointed his brother Joseph as its colonel when 
the 4th was at the Camp of Boulogne as part 
of the " Army of England." He had, indeed, 
specially chosen that particular corps for its 
steadiness. He announced Joseph's appointment 
to it in a message to the Senate on April 18, 
1804, " in order that he should be allowed to 
contribute to the vengeance which the French 
people propose to take for the violation of the 
Treaty [of Amiens] and be afforded an oppor- 
tunity of acquiring a fresh title to the esteem 
of the nation." 

In wild panic the survivors of the disaster 



110 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

fled to the rear, tearing by close past where 
Napoleon and the Staff were. " They almost 
rushed over us and the Emperor himself," 
describes De Segur, who as an aide de camp 
was close to the Emperor at the moment. 
" Our effort to arrest the rout was in vain. 
The unfortunate fellows were quite distracted 
with fear and would listen to nothing. In reply 
to our reproaches for so deserting the field of 
battle and their Emperor, they shouted mechani- 
cally ' Vive I'Empereur I ' and they fled away 
faster than ever. 

" Napoleon smiled pitifully. With a scornful 
gesture, he said to us : ' Let them go ! ' Re- 
taining all his calmness in the midst of the con- 
fusion he despatched Rapp to bring up the 
Cavalry of the Guard." 

Rapp, another of the Imperial aides de camp, 
was also Colonel of the Mamelukes of the Guard. 
He was at the moment riding close behind the 
Emperor. Rapp darted off, and, after taking 
Napoleon's order to charge the Russian Cuir- 
assiers to Marshal Bessieres, in command of the 
Cavalry of the Guard, he himself led their 
headmost squadrons forward ; his own swarthy 
Mamelukes with two squadrons of Chasseurs 
and one of Horse Grenadiers. Waving his 
sabre and calling at the top of his voice, " Ven- 
geons les I Vengeons nos drapeaux ! " " Avenge 
them ! Avenge our standards ! " he led them 
forward at full gallop. " We dashed at full 



"WE FOUGHT MAN TO MAN" 111 

speed on the artillery and took them," described 
Rapp in a letter. The guns were those of a 
Russian battery which had just come into action 
close by where the Guard Cuirassiers had 
charged. " The enemy's horse awaited our 
attack at the halt. They were overthrown by 
the charge and fled in confusion, galloping 
like us over the wrecks of our squares." 

But the Russians rallied quickly. Reinforced 
by the superb regiment of the Chevalier Guards, 
a corps in which all the troopers were men of 
birth, they came on to meet the French again. 
Just at that moment Bessieres, with at his back 
the magnificent cavalry of Napoleon's Guard, 
came up at full speed. Rapp's squadrons 
rejoined, and both Imperial Guards met in full 
career. " Again we charged," says Rapp, " and 
this charge was terrible. It was one of the most 
desperate cavalry combats ever fought, and 
lasted several minutes. The brave Morland, 
Colonel of the mounted Chasseurs of the Guard, 
fell by my side. We fought man to man, and 
so mingled together that the infantry on neither 
side dared fire, lest they should kill their own 
men." They fought it out until the Russians 
gave back and broke and fled — in full sight of 
the Czar and the Austrian Emperor, who from 
some rising ground near by had been spectators 
of the desperate affray. 

The survivors of the hapless First Battalion 
of the 4th of the Line had meanv/hile recovered 



112 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

themselves. Rallied by their officers, they had 
been brought back into the battle. They re- 
turned with their nerve restored, now only 
anxious to make amends for the disgrace they 
had brought on the Grand Army. They were 
in time to join in the final advance beyond 
the Pratzen heights and cross bayonets with an 
Austrian regiment, from which they took its 
two standards. That feat, as will be seen, 
was to serve them in good stead later on. 

The charge of the Cavalry of the Guard 
practically decided the fate of the day at 
Austerlitz. Napoleon at once brought up 
Oudinot's Grenadiers, Bernadotte's battalions, 
and the regiments of the Old Guard to further 
reinforce Soult's divisions. The Allied centre 
was shattered and driven in at all points, and 
forced back for a mile-and-a-half beyond the field 
of battle. It resisted desperately to the last, 
and several fierce counter-attacks were made ; 
but in vain. 

In one of these the Eagle of the Chasseurs a 
Pied of the Imperial Guard had a narrow escape. 
According to the story it was saved by a dog 
— " Moustache," a mongrel poodle that had 
attached himself to the corps and become a 
regimental pet. The Eagle-bearer of the First 
Battalion, to whom the dog was much attached, 
and whom he was following, was shot, and the 
Eagle dropped to the ground beneath the man's 
body. An Austrian regiment was making a 



THE DOG THAT SAVED AN EAGLE 113 

counter-attack at that point, and before the 
Eagle could be picked up, three Austrian soldiers 
ran forward to seize it. Two of them attacked 
the two men of the Eagle escort. The third 
was faced by " Moustache," who kept him off, 
growling savagely and snapping at the Austrian 
from behind the dead body of the Eagle- 
bearer. The man dropped his musket, drew 
his hanger, and cut at " Moustache," slicing 
off a paw. But in spite of that the dog managed 
to keep him off until assistance came. Then 
the three Austrians were bayoneted and the 
Eagle was saved. Marshal Lannes, on hearing 
the story, had a silver collar made for " Mous- 
tache," with a medal to hang from it, inscribed 
on one side, " II perdit une jambe a la bataille 
d'Austerlitz, et sauva le Drapeau de son regi- 
ment " ; and on the other, "Moustache, chien 
Fran^.ais ; qu'il soit partout respecte et cheri 
commxC un Brave." *' Moustache," in the end, 
it may be said, died a soldier's death. He was 
killed by an English cannon-ball at Badajoz, 
and was buried on the ramparts there, with a 
stone over him, inscribed : " Cy git le brave 
Moustache." 

The Allied centre broken through, the end 
came on swiftly all over the field of battle. 

On Napoleon's left wing, Lannes and Murat 
had engaged the Russian rear column (or right 
wing as they fronted to fight) immediately after 
Soult opened the main attack. They had done 



114 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

their part by holding in play the enemy in front, 
thus preventing the Allied troops on that side 
from moving up to reinforce the centre. There, 
too, as elsewhere, the Eagles of Napoleon's 
battalions fulfilled their role ; one Eagle in 
particular, that of the 13me Legere, achieving 
special distinction. When the Allied centre 
gave way, Lannes and Murat pressed forward 
impetuously, forcing their antagonists back, 
and driving them off the field to the north- 
east, past the village of Austerlitz. 

Davout, on Napoleon's right, finished his 
task at the same time ; in no less workman- 
ship fashion. As Soult swung round his vic- 
torious divisions to the right to take the Russian 
left wing in rear, Davout's moment came and 
he gave the order to advance. Surging forward 
with exultant shouts the stout-hearted defenders 
of that fiercely contested side of the field swept 
down on the assailants they had kept at bay for 
five long hours. The Russians did their best to 
make a brave resistance, but the day was lost. 
Formed in close-packed columns they fell back, 
losing guns and colours, and hundreds of pri- 



^ It was to one of these retreating columns that the historic 
"Ice Disaster" happened. Every one knows the story, as re- 
lated in Napoleon's Austerlitz Bulletin, and mentioned also by 
S6gur, Marbot, and Lejeune in their memoirs, how a column 
from the Russian left wing tried to escape over the frozen surface 
of the lake of Satschan, how Napoleon turned a battery on them 
while in the act of crossing the ice and broke it, and how *' thou- 
sands of Russians, with their horses, guns, and waggons, were 



VICTORS AND VANQUISHED 115 

As darkness closed in, the last shots were fired 
at Austerlitz. Crushing and complete had been 
the overthrow. The Allied army fled in wild 
panic. It left on the field 30,000 men, dead, 
wounded, or prisoners, 100 guns, and 400 ammu- 
nition caissons. Forty-five standards were in 
the hands of the victors. Twelve thousand men 
in killed and wounded was the price Napoleon 
paid. It was a big price ; but the victory to 
him was worth the sacrifice. At five next 
morning an aide de camp from the Austrian 
Emperor presented himself before Napoleon to 
beg for an immediate suspension of hostilities. 
The Emperor Francis himself had an interview 
with Napoleon during that afternoon, and, as 
the result, terms of peace — to include the Aus- 
trian Emperor's Russian allies — were mutually 
agreed on ; to be formally settled between the 
diplomatists as soon as possible, Pressburg in 
Hungary being named for the meeting-place. 

seen slowly settling down into the depths." The actual facts are 
recorded in the recently discovered report of the " Fischmeister " 
(or overseer) of the Carp Fishery of Satschan Lake, setting forth 
the results of draining off the water in the spring of 1806. There 
were found at the bottom, recorded the Fischmeister, twenty- 
eight cannon, one him.dred and fifty dead horses, but only three 
human corpses. The column, it would appear, had been com- 
posed of five batteries of artillery, and when the ice was broken, 
the guns, all but the two nearest the shore, sank through and 
dragged the horses with them to the bottom ; but the gunners, 
it would seem, were all able to scramble out, except the three 
unfortvmates who had been either hit by French round-shot, or 
were entangled in the harness of their teams. The loss of himaan 
life was therefore, presumably, only three men out of the five 
hundred or so \7ho must have been riding on, or with, the guns. 



116 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

We come now to the dramatic sequel to Aus- 
terlitz which awaited the ill-fated First Battalion 
of the 4th of the Line. They had to face Napo- 
leon and render account to him personally for 
the loss of their Eagle. The dreaded interview 
came some three weeks later ; at a grand parade 
of Soult's corps before the Emperor at Schon- 
brunn — as it befell, on Christmas Day. 

Napoleon, attended by the Imperial Staff, 
most of the marshals, half a hundred other 
officers of rank, and nearly as many aides de 
camp, passed down the long line of troops, 
congratulating most of the regiments on the 
parts they had individually taken on the diffe- 
rent battlefields. In due course the Emperor 
came to the regiments of Vandamme's division, 
ranged in their allotted place, the 4th of the 
Line among them. Its First Battalion, reduced 
by the disaster to a quarter of the normal 
strength, stood at the head of the regiment, 
looking gloomy and disconsolate, the only corps 
on parade without its Eagle. 

Napoleon approached the place with a frown 
on his face and a look as black as thunder. He 
reined up opposite the battalion and addressed 
it in a loud angry tone. 

" Soldiers," he began hoarsely. " What have 
you done with the Eagle which I entrusted to 
you ? " 

The colonel of the regiment replied that the 
Eagle-bearer had been killed at Austerlitz in 



SCATHING CENSURE AND BITTER SCORN 117 

the melee when the Russian cuirassiers charged 
the regiment, and the Eagle had been lost in 
the tumult and confusion of the moment. There 
was no survivor of those who had seen the 
Eagle-bearer fall. The battalion, indeed, did 
not know of its loss until some time later. One 
and all deeply deplored what had happened, 
but they desired to inform His Majesty most 
respectfully that they, single-handed, had cap- 
tured two Austrian standards, and implored his 
consideration on that account, begging that he 
would allow them to receive a new Eagle in 
exchange. 

The whole regiment supported the colonel's 
request with loud shouts, " reclama a grands 
cris." But Napoleon's countenance remained 
unchanged. 

He replied coldly and contemptuously : 
" These two foreign flags do not return me my 
Eagle ! " Then, after a pause, he launched 
out into words of the severest censure and rebuke, 
telling the men that he had seen them with his 
own eyes in flight at Austerlitz. He poured 
bitter scorn on their conduct, " in phrases, 
stinging, burning, corrosive, which those present 
remembered long afterwards — to the end of 
their lives." 

Again the unhappy colonel pleaded his hardest 
for his men. He entreated the Emperor's 
clemency, once more beseeching Napoleon to 
allow that they had wiped out the slur on their 



118 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

good name, and to grant the battalion a new 
Eagle. 

Napoleon said nothing for a moment. Then 
he again addressed them in an abrupt tone : 

" Officers, sub-officers, and soldiers, swear to 
me here that not one of you saw your Eagle fall. 
Assure me that if you had done so you would 
have flung yourselves into the midst of the 
enemy to recover it, or have died in the attempt. 
The soldier who loses his Eagle on the field 
of battle loses his honour and his all." 

" We swear it ! " came the reply at once. 

At that there seemed to come a change in 
the Emperor's mood. He paused once more 
for a few moments, during which there was dead 
silence. Then he raised his voice : "I will 
grant that you have not been cowards ; but 
you have been imprudent ! Again I tell you 
that these Austrian standards — even, indeed, 
were they six — would not compensate me for 
my Eagle." 

He stopped short. He seemed to be musing 
for a moment, looking straight into the eyes 
of the men. After that, with a curt " Well, 
I will restore you yet another Eagle ! " Napoleon 
turned his horse and rode on down the line of 
troops. 

It was quite true, as the colonel told Napoleon, 
that the regiment was unaware at the time that 
their Eagle had been lost. As a fact, search- 
parties — practically all the survivors of the 



THEY FOUND THE OTHER EAGLE 119 

First Battalion — v/ere out on the day after 
Austerlitz hunting over the battlefield among 
the dead for their lost Eagle. By the irony of 
fate it was they who picked up and restored 
the Eagle of the 24th Light Infantry to their 
fellows in adversity ; the Russians, it would 
seem, had not marked its fall in the confusion 
of the fighting. At any rate it was left where 
it fell and where it was found. 

There was, as it curiously happened, no 
reference in the Austerlitz Bulletin published 
in France — the 80th " Bulletin of the Grand 
Arm.y " — to the loss of its Eagle by the 4th of 
the Line, although the disaster to the battalion 
is reported. " Un bataillon du 4me de Ligne 
fut charge par la Garde Imperiale Russe k 
Cheval et culbute." That was all that was 
said on the subject. Yet, on other occasions 
later, when Eagles were lost, mention was made 
of the misfortune in one or other of the Bulle- 
tins, with, generally also, some remark by way 
of explaining away the unpleasant fact, and 
now and then a caustic comment by Napoleon. 
A picture connected with the incident was, 
however, painted — at whose request is unknown. 
It is now in the national collection of military 
pictures of the campaigns of Napoleon at Ver- 
sailles. It shows the First Battalion of the 
4th of the Line at the Schonbrunn review 
" presenting Napoleon with two Austrian 
standards taken by them from the enemy^ 



120 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 

and claiming in exchange a new Eagle for 
themselves." ^ 

This closing word may be said of the spoils 
of the Eagles at Austerlitz. 

The forty-five flags captured in the battle, 
with five others selected from those taken at 
Ulm, making fifty in all, were presented by 
Napoleon to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. 
With the trophies he sent this message : " Our 

1 Incidentally, that Christmas Day morning of the Schonbrunn 
review has an interest for us in this country. Napoleon left 
the palace for the review in a vile temper, which no doubt -was 
one reason why he vented his spleen so savagely on the un- 
fortunate soldiers of the 4th in his speech of censure. This 
was probably the prime cause. Late on the night before, on 
Christmas Eve, a courier from Paris had arrived at the Imperial 
head-quarters, bringing the defeated Admiral Villeneuve's 
Trafalgar despatch, his " Compte Rendu," written while Villeneuve 
was a prisoner on his way to England, and dated from " A bord de 
la frigate Anglais e Euryalus — le 15me Novembre 1805." It had 
been sent to France under a flag of truce, as an act of inter- 
national courtesy, and the Minister of Marine forwarded it to 
Napoleon. The news of the disaster had reached the Emperor 
some five weeks before, at Znaim in Moravia, a fortnight before 
Austerlitz ; first, froni some Austrian officers taken prisoners 
by Augereau in the Tyrol, then from the English papers. It 
had been enough then to give him a bad night, and make him 
morose for a week. Now that he learned the story frora his 
own admiral, it made him more fiirious than ever. The original 
despatch received by Napoleon at Schonbrunn that Christmas 
Eve exists, with its pathetic closing appeal, the pitiless response 
to which sent Admiral Villeneuve to a suicide's grave." " Pro- 
fond^ment p6n6tre," it ran, as written by Villeneuve's own hand, 
" de toute I'etendue de mon malheur et de toute la responsibilit6 
que comporte un aussi grand d^sastre, je ne desire rien tant que 
d'etre bientot k meme d'aller mettre aux pieds de S.M. ou la 
justification de ma conduite ou la victime qui doit etre immol6e, 
non a I'honneur du pavilion, qui, j'ose le dire, est demeur6 intact, 
mais aux manes de ceaux qui atu-oient p6ri par mon imprudence, 
mon inconsid6ration ou I'oubli de quelqu'un de mes devoirs." 



THE RECEPTION IN NOTRE DAME 121 

intention is that every year on the 2nd of Decem- 
ber a Solemn Office shall be sung in the Cathedral 
in memory of the brave men who fell on the 
great day." The flags were borne in triumph, 
together with the trophies of the Ulm campaign, 
— 120 captured standards and colours in all — ■ 
through the streets of Paris on January 15, 1806, 
amid a tremendous demonstration of popular 
enthusiasm. " The behaviour of the people," 
wrote Cambaceres, " resembled intoxication." 
Four days later the Austerlitz flags were received 
at Notre Dame by the assembled Cathedral 
clergy. Cardinal du Belloy at their head, with 
elaborate religious ceremonial. 

Said the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris in his 
address from the Altar-steps : " These banners, 
suspended from the roof of our Cathedral, will 
attest to posterity the efforts of Europe in arms 
against us ; the great achievements of our 
soldiers ; the protection of Heaven over France ; 
the prodigious successes of our invincible Em- 
peror ; and the homage which he pays to God 
for his victories." Not one of the flags exists 
now. They disappeared mysteriously, in cir- 
cumstances to be described later, in the early 
hours of March 31, 1814, the day on which 
the victorious Allies entered Paris, and Napoleon 
withdrew to Fontainebleau. 

Fifty-four of the other trophies paraded 
through Paris, flags taken in the Ulm campaign, 
were presented by Napoleon, as has been said. 



122 ON THE FIELD OF AUSTEELITZ 

to the Senate. In return a picture of the scene 
at the reception of the trophy-fiags was ordered 
to be painted for presentation to the Emperor, 
It is now at Versailles. 

The remaining sixteen trophies were divided 
by order of the Emperor. Eight were sent to 
the Assembly Hall of the Tribunate ; eight to 
the Hotel de Ville as a gift to the city of Paris. 

Thus did France receive the first spoils of the 
Eagles. 

" Soldiers," said Napoleon to the Grand 
Army, in his Austerlitz Proclamation ; "I am 
satisfied with you. You have justified my fullest 
expectations of your intrepidity. You have 
decorated your Eagles with immortal glory ! " 



chaptii:r V 

in the second campaign 

Jena and the Triumph of Berlin 

The curtain rises this time on an act in the War 
Drama of the Eagles miique in the startling 
incidents of its historic denoument. 

Prussia, in September 1806, threw down the 
gage to Napoleon and drew the sword for a 
trial of strength, with the full assurance of 
victory. There was no doubt in Germany as 
to the issue ; not the least anxiety was felt. 
No troops in the world, declared one and all, 
could stand up to the Prussian Army. It was 
easy, they said at Potsdam and Berlin, to account 
for what had happened last year on the Danube. 
Any sort of army could have won in that war. 
Timidity and want of skill in the Austrian 
generals, deficient training in the men, had 
been, beyond dispute, the reason of the disasters. 
It would be otherwise now. Napoleon would 
have to meet this time the Army of Prussia ; 
the best drilled and smartest soldiers in the 
world, organised and trained under the system 
that the Great Frederick had originated and 

123 



124 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

himself brought to perfection. " His Majesty 
the King," said one of the Prussian generals, 
addressing a parade at Potsdam, " has many- 
generals better than Napoleon ! " In the Prus- 
sian Army, from veteran field-marshal to 
drummer-boy, there were no two opinions as 
to what must be the outcome of a clash of arms 
with France. The wings of Napoleon's Eagles 
would be clipped once for all. 

But to hurl defiant words was not enough. 
Yet further to display contempt for their French 
foes, the young officers of the Prussian Guard 
marched one night in procession through the 
streets of Berlin to demonstrate in front of 
the French Embassy. Shouting out insults 
and jeers, they brandished their swords before 
the windows of the mansion and made a show 
of sharpening the blades on the Ambassador's 
doorsteps. The Prussian King's ultimatum 
went forth, couched in language there was no 
mistaking, and the Royal Guard Corps set out 
from the capital for the frontier with flags 
displayed and their bands playing triumphal 
airs, chanting songs of the victories of the 
Great Frederick, and shouting themselves hoarse 
with cries of " Nach Paris ! " All over Prussia 
it was the same. The marching regiments 
tramped through the towns and villages, their 
colours decked with flowers, their bands playing, 
and with the swaggering gait of victors return- 
ing from conquest. 



A REPLY WITHIN A WEEK 125 

The Prussian ultimatum, delivered on Sep- 
tember 1, haughtily demanded a reply from 
France within a week. It was accepted with 
alacrity. Napoleon had foreseen all and laid 
his plans. *' Marshal," he said to Berthier, 
with a grim smile, as he read the ultimatum, 
*' they have given us a rendezvous for the 8th ; 
never did Frenchman refuse such an appeal." 

The Eagles never swooped to more deadly 
purpose, with results more amazing and more 
dramatic, than in that campaign. 

Within three days of the firing of the first 
shot, a Prussian division of 9,000 men had been 
routed with heavy loss at Schleitz in Thuringia ; 
and Murat's cavalry had captured elsewhere 
great part of the Prussian reserve baggage- 
trains and pontoon equipment. On the fourth 
day of the war, at Saalfeld in Thuringia, 1,200 
Prussian prisoners were taken and 30 guns. 
In the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, both 
fought on the same day, October 14, 20,000 
Prussian prisoners, 200 guns, and 25 standards 
were spoils to the Eagles. At Erfurth, on the 
next day, a Prussian field-m-arshal with 14,000 
men, 120 guns and the whole of the grand park 
of the reserve artillery of the army were taken. 
At Halle 4,000 Prussian prisoners were taken, 
with 30 guns ; at Liibeck 8,000 prisoners and 
40 guns. Magdeburg, one of the strongest 
fortresses in Europe, with immense magazines 
and 600 guns on the ramparts garrisoned by 



126 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

16,000 troops, surrendered after a few hours' 
partial bombardment. Stettin, a first-class for- 
tress mounting 150 guns, with a garrison of 
6,000 men, surrendered without firing a shot. 
The strong fortress of Ciistrin on the Oder, with 
4,000 men in garrison and 90 cannon on the 
ramparts, surrendered, also without firing a 
shot, to a solitary French infantry regiment 
with four guns. The fortress of Spandau, 
garrisoned by 6,000 men, hauled down its flag 
and opened its gates to a squadron of French 
hussars, no other French troops being within 
many miles, bluffed into surrender. Within 
twelve days of Jena, Napoleon had made his 
entry as a conqueror into Berlin, and the Prus- 
sian Army had ceased to exist. " We have 
arrived in Potsdam and Berlin," announced 
Napoleon in a Bulletin to the Grand Armj^, 
** sooner than the renown of our victories ! 
We have made 60,000 prisoners, taken 65 stan- 
dards, including those of the Royal Guard, 
600 pieces of cannon, 3 fortresses, 20 gene- 
rals, half of our army having to regret that 
they have not had an opportunity of firing a 
shot. All the Prussian provinces from the 
Elbe to the Oder are in our hands." Before 
the end of the year, in little more than three 
months from the firing of the first shot, a total of 
100,000 prisoners, 4,000 cannon, 6 first-class 
fortresses, and many smaller ones, were in the 
hands of the victors. 



RUIN, SWIFT AND IRREPARABLE 127 

Never had the world witnessed such an over- 
throw in war, so complete and appalling a 
catastrophe. Two battles sufficed to prostrate 
Prussia and annihilate the model army of 
Frederick the Great : the twin battles of Jena 
and Auerstadt, both fought, as has been said, 
on the same day, October 14, and within ten 
miles of one another. Jena was fought under 
Napoleon's own eye ; Auerstadt by Marshal 
Davout, practically single-handed, with his one 
army corps confronting the King and Bliicher 
with the main Prussian army. The Prussian 
generals indeed gave themselves into Napoleon's 
hands at the outset. They separated their main 
army into two bodies out of touch with each 
other, in the immediate presence of the enemy. 
Ruin, swift and irreparable, was the penalty. 
At Jena, Prince Hohenlohe's army was flung 
roughly back and dashed to pieces, its scat- 
tered remnants flying in wild disorder. At 
Auerstadt, Davout defeated numbers nearly 
double his own, through the confused tactics 
of the Prussian generals. Immediately after 
that came on the debacle. The Prussian Auer- 
stadt army was falling back, disheartened and 
demoralised, but still in fair military formation 
to a large extent, when, all of a sudden, not 
having had up to then the least inkling of what 
had happened at Jena, the retreating troops came 
upon the shattered fragments of Hohenlohe's 
battalions, streaming in wild confusion across 
10 



128 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

their path ; masses of fugitives running for their 
lives in frantic panic before the sabres of Murat's 
pursuing cavalry. That ended everything for 
the Prussian army in five minutes. The sight 
of their fugitive comrades struck confusion and 
sheer fright into the retreating columns from 
Auerstadt. All order was instantly lost : the 
soldiers threw away their arms and spread over 
the country in headlong rout. And there was 
no means of stopping it. In their blind self- 
confidence the Prussian generals had made no 
arrangements in the event of a reverse. No 
line of retreat had been arranged for, no rallying- 
point had been thought of. " The disaster of a 
single day made an end of the Prussian army 
as a force capable of meeting the enemy in the 
field." 

For the Eagles it was a day of adventures on 
both battlefields. Swiftly alternating rushes 
forward, the Eagles showing the way at the 
head of their regiments at one moment ; hasty 
halts to form in rallying squares, the Eagles in 
the midst, the next moment, to check the in- 
cessant Prussian cavalry counter-charges — that 
was what the fighting on the French side was 
like, all through the day, at both Jena and 
Auerstadt. At one time the Eagles were leading 
forward charging lines of exultantly cheering 
men, firing fast and racing forward at the pas 
de charge; immediately afterwards they were 
standing fast, each the centre of a mass of 



" LEAD OUT YOUR EAGLE ! " 129 

breathless and excited soldiers, surging round and 
closing up to form square, with bristling bayonets 
levelled on every side, to hold the ground they 
had won against the charging squadrons of 
Prussian horsemen that came at them, thunder- 
ing down impetuously at the gallop. 

" I want to see the Eagles well to the front 
to-day ! " said Napoleon to several regiments 
in turn, as he rode at early dawn along the lines 
of Marshal Soult's two foremost divisions who 
were to open the attack at Jena. To them the 
task had been appointed to push forward in ad- 
vance, and hold the exits from the narrow defiles 
through which the French troops had to pass, 
before reaching the Prussians on the high ground 
beyond, in order to give time to the main army, 
following close in rear, to deploy and form in battle 
order. " Lead out your Eagle, Sixty-fourth ! " 
Napoleon said to one of the regiments told 
off to go forward in the forefront of all. " I 
wish to-day to see the Eagle of the Sixty-fourth 
lead the battle on the field of honour ! " How 
that Eagle led its regiment, how those who 
fought under it did their duty, the prized honour 
of special mention in the Jena Bulletin of the 
Grand Army, and a shower of crosses of the 
Legion of Honour, distributed among all ranks, 
bore testimony. Five times did the Eagle of 
the 34th, the regiment fighting next to the 
64th, lead a charge, each charge crossing 
bayonets with the enemy, twice in hand-to-hand 



130 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

fight with the picked corps of the Prussian 
Grenadiers. 

It was on the battlefield of Jena that Marshal 
Ney won his historic sobriquet of " The Bravest 
of the Brave." He personally led forward his 
attack, with, at either side of him, the Eagles of 
the 18th of the Line, the 32nd, and the 96th. 
Carried away by his impetuous valour, soon after 
the opening of the battle, Ney made his attack 
with only at hand the three regiments of his First 
Division. The other two divisions of Ney's corps 
had not yet reached the field. A regiment of 
cuirassiers headed the column, and at their first 
charge captured 13 Prussian guns ; but the 
Prussian cavalry, charging back at once to recover 
the guns, overpowered the cuirassiers. 

" The Prussian cavalry broke the French horse, 
and enveloped the infantry in such numbers 
as would inevitably have proved fatal to less 
resolute troops ; but the brave marshal instantly 
formed his men into squares, threw himself into 
one of them, and there maintained the combat 
by a rolling fire oh all sides, till Napoleon, who 
saw his danger, sent several regiments of horse, 
under Bertrand, who disengaged him from his 
perilous situation." 

Ney's other troops then joined the marshal, 
coming up with their Eagles gleaming through 
the battle-smoke : the Eagles of the 39th and 
the 69th, of the 76th, the 27th, and the 59th. 
Ney, extricated from his difficulties, went on 



LET THEM COME ON! 131 

again at once. "With intrepid step he ascended 
the hill, and, after a sharp conflict, stormed the 
important village of Vierzehn-Heiligen, in the 
centre of the Prussian position. In vain Hohen- 
lohe formed the flower of his troops to regain the 
post ; in vain these brave men advanced in 
parade order, and with unshrinking firmness, 
through a storm of musketry and grape ; the 
troops of Lannes came up to Ney's support, 
and the French established themselves in such 
strength in the village as to render all subsequent 
attempts for its recapture abortive." 

This was the spirit in which, at Jena, Ney's 
men fought under the Eagles. One instance will 
suffice. The 76th of the Line, after the village 
of Vierzehn-Heiligen had been taken, were in the 
act of advancing across the open to a fresh attack, 
when a charge of Prussian cavalry swept fiercely 
down on them. The regiment formed in square, 
each battalion rallying round its Eagle, held up 
aloft for all to gather round. The Prussians had 
come up suddenly. They were within 150 yards 
before the 76th were ready. Then the 76th 
were ordered to " present " and fire. Instead of 
doing that, the men, as if moved by one common 
impulse, took off their shakos, stuck them on 
their bayonets, and waved them in the air, Avith 
defiant cheers of " Vive I'Empereur ! " " Donnez 
feu, mes enfants ! Donnez feu ! " (" Fire, men, 
fire ! ") shouted out their colonel, Lannier, anxious 
lest the enemy should get too near. " We 



132 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

have time : at fifteen paces, Colonel ; wait and 
see ! " came back in answer from the ranks. 
They did wait, and, at just fifteen paces, fired a 
crashing volley which so staggered the Prussians 
that, leaving half their men on the ground, they 
turned and galloped back. 

The regiments of Lannes' corps, with the fiery 
marshal cantering at their head and waving 
them on, cocked hat in hand, entered the battle 
with drums beating and the Eagles proudly dis- 
played in the centre of the leading lines. 

One regiment lost 28 officers and 400 men. It 
had made good its first attack and was advancing 
to a second, when it was charged in the open by 
the Prussian cavalry, while in the act of forming 
square. It all but lost its Eagle. The Eagle- 
bearer was cut down, and the Eagle was broken 
from its staff in the trampling tumult of horse- 
men intermingled with infantry, savagely fighting 
with their bayonets. A soldier saved the Eagle, 
and in the hurry of the moment stuffed it into 
the pocket of his long overcoat. Then he went 
on fighting. Apparently the man had no time 
or opportunity to think of the Eagle again. 
The regiment was re-forming towards the close 
of the battle, when Napoleon himself, riding across 
the ground near them, with his quick glance, 
missed the Eagle. He cantered up to the spot, 
and, on being told by an officer that he did net 
know where it was, angrily accused the men of 
having lost their Eagle on the field. He began 



"HERE IS THE COU-COU ! " 133 

upbraiding them indignantly : " What is this ? 
Where is your Eagle ? You have brought dis- 
grace on the Army by losing your Eagle ! " 
Those were his opening words. He was rating 
the men angrily, when he was abruptly inter- 
rupted by a voice from the ranks. " No, your 
Majesty, no ! they did not get it : they only 
got a piece of the baton I Here is the Cou-cou ! 
I put it in my pocket ! " The soldier drew out 
the Eagle as he spoke and held it up. There 
was a loud outburst of laughter from the soldiers 
at the unexpected turn of events, amid which 
Napoleon, without a word more, turned and 
rode off elsewhere. 

At Auerstadt, where 30,000 French faced and 
defeated 60,000 Prussians, the fighting was even 
fiercer than at Jena. Recklessly the Prussian 
horsemen, led in person by the dauntless Bliicher, 
repeatedly charged down on the French, who 
formed in square everywhere to beat them back. 
They did so at all points, and the Prussians only 
wrecked themselves beyond recovery by their 
efforts. In vain did the Prussian cavalry, as at 
Jena, gallop up to the French bayonets again 
and again. " In vain these gallant cavaliers, 
with headlong fury, drove their steeds up to the 
very muzzles of the French muskets. In vain 
they rode round and enveloped their squares : 
ceaseless was the rolling fire which issued from 
those flaming walls : impenetrable the hedge of 
bayonets which, the front rank kneeling, pre- 



134 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

sented to their advances." Erect in the centre 
of each French battalion square glittered its 
Eagle, raised on high defiantly above the smoke 
as the volleys flashed out all round. 

Marshal Davout was seen at every point 
wherever the regiments were hardest pressed. 
From square to square the marshal galloped, as 
opportunity offered in the intervals of the 
Prussian attacks, " his face begrimed with sweat 
and powder-smoke, his spectacles gone,^ his bald 
head bleeding from a wound, his uniform torn, 
a piece of his cocked hat shot away," to exhort 
the men to stand fast and hold their ground. 
To one regiment he called out, as he reined up 
beside its square : " Their Great Frederick said 
that God gave the victory to the big battalions. 
He lied ! It's the stubborn soldiers who win 
battles ; that's you and your general to-day ! " 
Davout personally brought up support at one 
point to rescue a sorely pressed division of four 
regiments, General Gudin's,^ holding the village 
of Herrenhausen, on the right of the battlefield ; 
a post of vital importance to the fate of the day. 
Taken by a brilliant dash forward early in the 
battle, the village was held to the last, in spite of the 
utmost endeavours of the Prussians to regain it. 

^ The spectacles which Marshal Davout wore at Auerstadt — 
an extremely primitive-looking pair of goggles in thick-rimmed 
frames — were picked up on the field, and are treasured to this- 
day by the family of the present Due d' Auerstadt. 

' Gudin's division was officially returned as having lost 124 
officers and 3,500 men. 







MARSHAL DAVOUT, 



134] 



AT BAY BEHIND A BARRICADE 135 

The French kept the post at the cost of half 
their numbers. One regiment, the 85th, on the 
side of the village fronting the Prussians, lost 
two-thirds of its men and was forced back and 
compelled to abandon the outskirts. It kept 
the Prussians at bay, however, within the 
village, behind a barricade of overturned carts, 
farm implements, and cottage furniture heaped 
together. Close behind the firing line across 
the village street the Eagle-bearer took his stand, 
amidst a hail of bullets, mounted on a wheel- 
barrow and brandishing the Eagle and calling 
on the men to stand firm and fire low. 

Marshal Davout brought up his First Division 
of five regiments to rescue Gudin, heading them 
sword in hand as he galloped forward. In doing 
so he received his wound and had a narrow escape 
of his life. " One bullet went through the 
marshal's hat just above the cockade." ^ 

The 111th of the Line, of Davout's Third 
Division, had three Eagle-bearers shot down in 
succession, a fresh officer coming forward to 
carry the Eagle as his predecessor fell. All the 
drummer-lads of the regiment were killed, where- 
upon Drum-Major Mauser, dropping his staff, 
picked up a drum and beat it as the regiment 
advanced in its final charge. He ran forward 
close beside the Eagle until he in turn fell shot 

* Davout's cocked hat, with one end shot away and a bullet- 
hole through the crown, is now one of the battle relics of Na- 
poleon's wars kept at the Invalides. 



186 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

dead. This was in storming the village of 
Spielberg, nearly at the close of the battle. 

" The corps of Marshal Davout performed 
prodigies," wrote Napoleon in the Fourth Bul- 
letin of the campaign, commending with warmth 
" the rare intrepidity of the brave corps." He 
ordered 500 crosses of the Legion of Honour 
to be distributed in Davout's corps, directing 
that when the army reached Berlin, Davout 
and the Third CorjDS should take precedence, 
and their Eagles lead the triumphal entry 
through the streets of the Prussian capital. At 
a special review of Davout's corps, calling the 
marshal and his generals round him, he declared 
his unbounded admiration of the feat of arms 
they had achieved. " Sire," replied Davout, 
deeply moved at Napoleon's words, " the 
soldiers of the Third Corps will always be to 
you what the Tenth Legion was to Caesar." 

At the attack on Halle, three days after Jena, 
the 32nd of the Line, near the Eagle of which 
regiment Ney had ridden at Jena, distinguished 
themselves brilliantly. The Prussian Reserve 
Army Corps was holding Halle and making a 
gallant effort in a rearguard fight to safeguard 
the passage there over the river Saale. Led by 
the commander of Ney's First Division, General 
Dupont, in person, they stormed the bridge in 
the face of a tremendous fire of grape and case 
shot. Then, backed up by their comrades in 
Ney's First Division, the 18th and 96th and 9th 



ACROSS A CONQUERED LAND 137 

Light Infantry, they fought their way through 
the city and, breaking open the gates, stormed 
the heights beyond, foremost throughout in the 
attack. Four times the Eagle-bearer of the 32nd 
was shot down : each time a fresh officer sprang 
forward to lead the regiment on. The 97th of 
the Line, while fighting their way through the 
streets of Halle at another point, found the 
Prussian cannon mounted at a barricade too dead- 
ly to face in the open, and the regiment recoiled 
in confusion. Taking the Eagle from the Eagle- 
bearer, Colonel Barrois called forward the 
grenadier company. Leading them on himself 
on horseback, holding up the Eagle with his 
right hand, he went straight at the barricade, 
which was stormed without touching a trigger. 
Thenceforward there was only left for the 
Eagles to choose the slain ; to parade in triumph 
across a conquered land. " Veni, Vidi, Vici," 
sums up the story of the after- events of the war 
for the Eagles of Napoleon. The army of the 
great Frederick committed suicide after Jena. 
Its resistance collapsed : the army that had gone 
forth in September to cross the Rhine and dictate 
peace at the gates of Paris had ceased to exist 
within six weeks. How completely indeed the 
moral of the Prussians had been shattered, this 
story, from a report from Marshal Lannes to 
Napoleon, serves to show. '' Three hussars,'* 
related Lannes, " having lost their way towards 
Gratz, found themselves in the midst of an 



138 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

enemy's squadron. They boldly drew their 
carbines and, levelling them at the enemy, 
called out that the Prussians were surroundedj 
and must surrender at discretion. The Prussians 
obeyed. The commander of the squadron, with- 
out apparently a thought of resistance, ordered 
his men to dismount, and they surrendered their 
arms to those three hussars, who brought them 
all in prisoners of war." 

General Lassalle, with a handful of hussars, 
as has been said, captured the fortress of Stettin, 
with 150 guns on its walls and a garrison of 6,000 
men, by sheer effrontery. He rode up to the 
main gate and demanded the surrender within 
five minutes ; and the governor capitulated on 
the spot. " If your hussars take strong for- 
tresses like that," wrote Napoleon to Murat, on 
hearing the news, " I have nothing to do but 
break up my artillery and discharge my engi- 
neers." Prince Hohenlohe with 14,000 men and 
50 guns, his troops including the Royal Prus- 
sian Guard and six regiments of Guard cavalry, 
laid down their arms at Prentzlau. A few miles 
away, 8,000 more Prussians surrendered on the 
same day to a French brigade of dragoons. The 
unfortunates were remnants of the troops beaten 
at Jena, and had been relentlessly pursued for 
ten days. 

The 7th Hussars forwarded to Napoleon as 
their spoils from a three days' chase, 7 Prussian 
cavalry standards ; those of the Anspach and 



"THE FINEST FEAT OF ARMS" 130 

Bayreuth Dragoons ; the Queen of Prussia's 
regiment ; and 4 standards of the Light Cavalry 
of the Guard. Marshal Lannes sent Napoleon 
40 Prussian standards taken between Jena and 
Berlin. Bernadotte and Soult presented 82 more 
trophies, the spoils of Bliicher's army, forced to 
surrender at Liibeck after a forlorn-hope fight 
in the course of which the city was stormed. 

Marshal Ney took the fortress of Magdeburg 
without having a single siege-gun, and with only 
11,000 men at hand to deal with 24,000 in the 
garrison and 700 guns on the ramparts, some of 
these being the heaviest artillery of the time. 
It was perhaps the most surprising event of the 
war. The taking of Magdeburg, wrote Junot, 
*' is the finest feat of arms that has illustrated 
this campaign." Ney had been ordered to block- 
ade Magdeburg until a sufficient army was 
available for the siege of the fortress, which 
Napoleon expected would be a long and diffi- 
cult affair. But so tedious a task as a blockade 
was not at all to Ney's taste. To hasten matters 
he sent for half a dozen mortars, taken at Erfurt, 
and began throwing shells into the suburbs on 
the side nearest him. The bombardment caused 
a scare among the townsfolk. Panic-stricken at 
seeing their houses set on fire and destroyed by the 
bursting shells, they hastened to General Kleist, 
the governor of Magdeburg, an elderly and 
nervous old gentleman of between seventy and 
eighty years of age, and implored him to ask 



140 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

terms of the French marshal. Dismayed him- 
self at the prospect of a siege, with disorder 
rampant among the military — nearly half the 
garrison was made up of fragments of fugitive 
regiments from Jena who had fled to Magdeburg 
for shelter from the pursuing French — Kleist, 
losing his nerve in the face of the alarm- 
ing situation, agreed to negotiate for terms. 
Ney's reply was a demand for instant surrender, 
whereupon the wretched governor, although he 
had more than enough good troops at disposal, 
without counting the Jena fugitives, to have 
made a stubborn defence, tamely hoisted the 
white flag. 

The march out of the garrison of Magdeburg 
was a repetition of the Austrian humiliation of 
Ulm on a lesser scale. The standards of the 
Black Eagle in their turn had at Magdeburg 
publicly to acknowledge defeat before the Eagles 
of Napoleon. 

Ney drew up his 11,000 men in a great hollow 
square outside the Ulrich gate of the fortress. 
His troops were drawn up along three sides of 
the square ; the fourth side, that nearest the city, 
being left open. In front of the regiments stood 
their Eagles, all paraded as at Ulm, the Eagle- 
guards beside them, and the regimental officers 
standing in line with their swords at the carry. 
The Prussians marched out and, to the music of 
the French bands, passed in procession along 
the three inner sides of the square, and in front 



THE GARRISON LAYS DOWN ARMS 141 

of Marshal Ney and his staff. The miserable 
Kleist led them, and then took his stand beside 
Ney, to answer the marshal's questions as to who 
and what the various regiments were, as each 
set of downcast Prussians trailed past. They 
tramped by, with their muskets on their shoulders 
unloaded and without bayonets, and with their 
colours furled. The hapless prisoners, after 
they had defiled past, were at once marched 
away under escort on the road to Mayence. 
Twenty generals, 800 other officers, 22,000 
infantry, and 2,000 artillerymen, with 59 
standards, underwent the humiliation of the 
defilade.^ There were several painful scenes 
at the laying down of the arms. " Their soldiers 
openly insulted their officers," describes one of 
the French lookers-on. " Most of them looked 
terribly ashamed of themselves ; the faces of not 
a few were streaming with tears." 

At Magdeburg, as in the other surrenders 
elsewhere, it was not the personal courage of the 
officers and soldiers that was wanting — ^there were 
men by thousands in the various garrisons ready 

^ In his instructions to Ney in regard to the trophies taken. 
Napoleon wrote this, specially with reference to a nTimber of 
flags belonging to Prussian regiments elsewhere which had been 
temporarily stored at Magdeburg : " Les drapeaux prussiens 
pris dans 1' arsenal de Magdeburg ne signifient rien : donnez 
Tordre qu'ils soient brul6s, mais vous ferez porter en triomphe 
par votre premier division les drapeaux pris a la garnison, 
pour etre remis par vous k Berlin h I'Empereur. On ne doit 
porter en triomphe que les drapeaux pris les armes a la main, 
et bruler ceux pris dans les arsenaux." 



142 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

to give their lives for the honour of their country ; 
it was the generals in command whose nerve 
lacked. The generals were men past their 
prime, and mostly physically incapable of endur- 
ing hardships. They had been appointed to their 
posts, in accordance with the system in vogue 
in Prussia, for the sake of the emoluments. 

" The overthrow of Jena," to use the words 
of a modern writer, " had been caused by faults 
of generalship, and cast no stain upon the 
courage of the officers ; the surrender of the 
Prussian fortresses, which began on the day 
when the French entered Berlin, attached the 
utmost personal disgrace to their commanders. 
Even after the destruction of the army in the field, 
Prussia's situation would not have been hope- 
less if the commanders of the fortresses had 
acted on the ordinary rules of military duty. 
Magdeburg and the strongholds upon the Oder 
were sufficiently armed and provisioned to de- 
tain the entire French army, and to give time to 
the King to collect upon the Vistula a force as 
numerous as that which he had lost. But 
whatever is weakest in human nature — old age, 
fear, and credulity — seemed to have been placed 
at the head of the Prussian defences." Kiistrin 
on the Oder, " in full order for a long siege, was 
surrendered by the older officers, amidst the 
curses of the subalterns and the common soldiers : 
the artillerymen had to be dragged from their 
guns by force." 



MARSHAL DAVOUT IN BERLIN 143 

At Magdeburg, indeed, before the march out, 
the younger officers of the garrison mobbed 
General Kleist, hooting at him and cursing him 
to his face ; some of them, further, being with 
difficulty stopped from acts of personal violence. 

There yet remained one day more for the 
Eagles. The triumphal parade of the victorious 
Eagles through Berlin was the crowning humilia- 
tion that Napoleon imposed on vanquished 
Prussia. 

Davout's corps, as Napoleon had promised, 
marched through the Prussian capital first of 
all. The marshal was waited on as he entered 
by the Burgomeister and civic authorities, 
humbly bowing before him, and offering in 
token of submission the keys of Berlin. The 
offer, however, was declined. " You must pre- 
sent them later," was the reply ; " they belong to 
a greater than I ! " After marching through 
Berlin, Davout camped a mile beyond the city, 
posting his artillery " in position as for war, 
pointed towards the place as in readiness to 
bombard it." The soldiers were then allowed 
to go about Berlin in parties. They behaved 
very quietly, and made eager sightseers, we are 
told. The shops, which had been closed during 
the march through, reopened later, and the 
people went about the streets as usual, " morti- 
fied and subdued in demeanour, but apparently 
very curious to see what they could of the French 
officers." 
11 



144' IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

Augereau's corps, and then those of Soult, 
Bernadotte, and Ney made their triumphal 
entry and march through BerHn in turn, on 
different days later on, bands playing and 
Eagles displayed at the head of the regiments — 
the people turning out on each occasion in crowds 
to line the streets and gaze at the show, " express- 
ing great surprise at the small size of our men 
and the youth of most of the officers." Marshal 
Ney's corps brought with them their fifty-nine 
trophies from Magdeburg, and, after parading 
them through the streets of Berlin, ceremoniously 
presented them to Napoleon in public, in front 
of the statue of Frederick the Great. 

Napoleon himself made his triumphal entry 
into Berlin on October 28, three days after 
Davout's march through. He rode from Char- 
lottenburg through the Brandenburg Gate and 
along Unter-den-Linden to the Royal Palace, 
at the head of the Old Guard and six thousand 
cuirassiers in gleaming mail. Squadrons of 
Gendarmerie d'Elite and Chasseurs of the Guard 
and the Horse Grenadiers, in their huge bear- 
skins, led the long procession, all in grande tenue, 
with their bands playing and the Eagles glitter- 
ing in the brilliant sunshine of a perfect autumn 
day. 

Napoleon came next, "riding by himself, twenty 
paces in front of the staff, with impassive face 
and a stern expression," passing amid dense 
silent crowds, " the men all wearing black, as in 



NAPOLEON RIDES THROUGH 145 

mourning ; the women mostly with handker- 
chiefs to their eyes." The people lined both 
sides of the roadwaj^, and filled the windows of 
all the houses overlooking the route. All Berlin, 
young and old, was in the streets that day, 
staring at the spectacle in mute silence, looking 
on dumbly, pale-faced and miserable of aspect. 
Not a mutter of abuse was heard, not the least 
sign was apparent of the deadly hatred to their 
conqueror that one and all felt. With rage and 
despair in their hearts, with compressed lips and 
clenched fists at their sides, the men watched 
the splendid array sweep proudly past them in 
all the insolent pomp of victorious war. 

For once, on that historic occasion, Napoleon 
discarded his customary wear of the green un- 
dress uniform of his pet corps, the Chasseurs of 
the Guard. He entered Berlin as the head of a 
conquering army, wearing the full-dress uniform 
of a French general, crimson plumed cocked hat 
with blue and white aigrette, blue coat heavily 
embroidered with gold, and with glittering bul- 
lion epaulettes, and the blue and gold sash of a 
general round his waist. Four marshals, Ber- 
thier, Lannes, Davout, and Augereau, riding 
abreast, followed Napoleon, immediately in front 
of the Imperial Staff, a cavalcade of a hundred 
and more brilliantly decorated officers, all in 
their most gorgeous parade uniforms, in celebra- 
tion of the day. The keys of the city were 
presented to the conqueror, and accepted by him, 



146 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

as Napoleon passed through the Brandenburg 
Gate. Ten thousand infantry of the Old Guard, 
in a vast solid column of glistening bayonets, 
marched, twenty abreast, in rear of the staff. 
Their famous band playing triumphantly, with 
the Eagle of the Grenadiers of the Old Guard 
above its flag of crimson silk and gold, heading 
the veterans. They also were all in the full-dress 
uniform they wore on gala-day parades before 
the Tuileries. By Napoleon's special order, the 
Old Guard on all campaigns carried in their 
knapsacks their full-dress uniform, specially for 
donning on occasions such as that at Berlin. 

But the cup of humiliation for the miserable 
citizens of the Prussian capital was not yet full. 
They had yet another military spectacle with a 
significance of its own to witness ; one the deep 
humiliation of which they felt more bitterly 
even than Napoleon's triumphant ride in person 
through their streets. The citizens of Berlin 
had to look on their own officers of the Royal 
Prussian Guard being led in procession through 
their midst under the armed escort of Napoleon's 
grenadiers. That was Napoleon's way of settling 
accounts for that August night of wanton insult 
to France, for the sharpening of the sword-blades 
on the steps of the French Embassy. 

Nor, too, did Napoleon spare the Prussian 
prisoners of the rank and file. Writing from 
Berlin to the Minister of the Interior in Paris, 
he gave directions that the Prussian captives 



THE PRISONERS FARMED OUT 147 

should be made use of as hewers of wood and 
drawers of water for their conquerors. They 
were to be farmed out to municipalities and 
district councils in the Departments. " Their 
services should be turned to account at a trifling 
expense in the way of wages for the benefit of 
our manufacturers and cultivators and replace 
our conscripts called to serve in the ranks of the 
Grand Army." 

Napoleon stayed in Berlin for four weeks, 
while the marshals were leading the Eagles 
through Eastern Prussia towards the Polish 
frontier. Russia had taken up the cause of her 
defeated neighbour, and the armies of the Czar 
were on the move to rescue what was left of the 
Prussian army. Less than 15,000 men were 
all that remained in the field to show fight, 
of 200,000 soldiers who, not two months before, 
had been on the march against France in full 
anticipation of victory. 

In the Royal Palace of Berlin Napoleon re- 
ceived with elaborate ceremony the deputation 
of the French Senate sent from Paris specially 
to congratulate the victor of Jena in the enemy's 
capital. He took advantage of the unique occa- 
sion for the formal presentation and handing 
over to their charge, for conveyance to Paris, of 
the trophies of the war — 340 Prussian battle- 
flags and standards.^ Forty of the trophies 

^ The Moniteur made this notification in addition : " The 
Emperor has ordered a series of eight pictures, sixteen feet by 



148 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

presented to the Senate on that day at Berlin 
are now among the array of trophies grouped 
round Napoleon's tomb in the Invalides. 

Napoleon handed over to the charge of the 
deputation at the same time, for transfer to the 
Invalides, his own personal spoil — the sword of 
Frederick the Great. It was removed — all the 
world knows the story of the unpardonable 
outrage — by Napoleon's own hand from its 
resting-place on the royal tomb at Potsdam. 
" I would rather have this," he said to the 
officers beside him in the royal vault as he took 
possession of the sword, " than twenty millions. 
I shall send it to my old soldiers who fought 
against Frederick in the campaign in Hanover. 
I will present it to the Governor of the Invalides, 
who will guard it as a testimonial of the vic- 
tories of the Grand Army and the vengeance that 
it has wreaked for the disaster of Rosbach. My 
veterans will be pleased to see the sword of the 
man who defeated them at Rosbach ! " 

The trophies started for France forthwith 
under military escort, and Paris went mad with 
exultation at the sight of them. On the day of 
the State Procession which escorted the trophies 

ten, each, with life-size figures, from MM. Gerard, Lethiere, 
Gautherot, Gu4rin, Hennequin, Girodet, Meynier, and Gros. 
The pictures are intended for the galleries of the Tuileries, and 
will depict the most memorable events of the campaign in Ger- 
many." They are now in the Louvre, badly " skied," and only 
paid heed to by the batches of recruits who from time to time 
are conducted round to see them under the guidance of under- 
officer instructors as lecturers. 



FREDERICK THE GREAT'S SWORD 149 

from the Tuileries to the Invalides it proved 
almost impossible to keep back the enormous 
crowds that thronged the streets along the route, 
in spite of cordons of gendarmerie and regiments 
of dragoons. Deputations of veterans and 
National Guards, with the Eagles of the Depart- 
mental Legions, led the way. Then came Im- 
perial carriages with exalted official personages. 
The trophies had their place next, displayed in 
clusters of flags all round a gigantic triumphal 
car. Marshal Moncey, the acting Governor of 
Paris, rode a few paces behind the car of Prus- 
sian standards, holding up the trophy of trophies 
before the eyes of the wildly cheering onlookers 
— Frederick the Great's sword. A gaily attired 
train of generals and staff officers attended the 
marshal. The rear of the procession was brought 
up by the battalions of the Guard of Paris, their 
Eagles being borne amid rows of gleaming bayo- 
nets. Salvos of artillery from the Triumphal 
Battery greeted the arrival of the trophies at the 
Invalides, where the veterans awaited them, 
drawn up on parade before the Gate of Honour. 
As Napoleon had specially directed, the Hano- 
verian War veterans of the Invalides met and 
escorted Marshal Moncey to the chapel at the 
head of other specially nominated veterans, who 
bore, marching in procession, the Prussian 
trophy-standards. The trophies were deposited 
with an elaborate display of ceremonial in front 
of the High Altar, after which Fontanes, the 



150 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

Public Orator of the Empire, delivered an 
address full of glowingly eloquent passages on 
the glorious achievements of the Grand Army 
and the " resplendent magnificence of the leader 
who had led the Eagles to surpassing triumphs ! " 

The Twelve Lost Eagles of Eylau 

Napoleon passed from the victorious fields of 
Prussia to the rough experiences of the Eylau 
and Friedland campaigns, which followed as 
the sequel to Jena on the plains of the Polish 
frontier. The Eagles there had to undergo under 
fire vicissitudes of fortune that were a foretaste 
of the fate in store for some of them later on, at 
the hands of the same enemy, in the Moscow 
campaign. No fewer than fourteen of the Eagles 
borne in triumph through Berlin after Jena were 
on view within a twelvemonth as spoils of war 
in the Kazan Cathedral at St. Petersburg. 

The Eagle of Marshal Ney's favourite regi- 
ment in the battle-days of the Ulm campaign, 
the 9th Light Infantry, was the first to meet 
adventures in the Polish War. It was on the 
occasion of the surprise of Bernadotte's army 
corps, at Mohringen near the Vistula, in the last 
week of January 1807. The Grand Army was 
lying in winter quarters to the north of Warsaw, 
awaiting the reopening of the campaign in the 
early spring, when the Russian army, breaking 
up unexpectedly from its cantonments beyond 



FOUR TIMES TAKEN AND RETAKEN 151 

the Vistula in the depth of winter, made a dash 
at Bernadotte's outlying troops, posted by them- 
selves at some distance from the main army and 
scattered in detachments over a wide tract of 
country for reasons of food-supply. Berna- 
dotte only got news of the enemy's approach 
just in time; practically at the eleventh hour. 
He was rapidly concentrating his corps at Moh- 
ringen, but barely half his troops had been able 
to reach the point of danger when the Russians 
struck their blow. He was able with the troops 
nearest at hand to avert destruction, but the 
escape was a narrow one and his losses were very 
heavy, all his baggage falling into the hands of 
the enemy. Fortunately for the French the 
Russian advanced guard attacked prematurely 
and was beaten back, after which Bernadotte 
made good his retreat to a safer neighbourhood. 
The 9th Light Infantry were in the forefront 
of the fighting, which was at the closest quarters, 
the soldiers on both sides meeting man to man. 
Four Eagle-bearers of the 9th fell, one after 
the other. Four times the Eagle was taken by 
the Russians and recaptured at the point of the 
bayonet. A fifth time the Eagle-bearer went 
down, and on his fall this time the Eagle dis- 
appeared, while the 9th were driven back, 
broken and in disorder. They were quickly 
rallied again, however, and led once more to the 
charge, " going forward to the combat with the 
fury of despair." This time their impetuous 



152 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

onset forced the Russians to give ground. 
Advancing with shouts of victory, they stormed 
the village of Psarrefelden, immediately in front 
of them, and there seized part of a Russian 
ammunition train. While searching for fresh 
cartridges in one of the enemy's ammunition 
wagons to replenish their empty cartouche-boxes 
an officer, to his surprise, came upon the lost 
Eagle. It had been broken from its staff in 
the last fight round it, and its Russian captor, 
probably having enough to do to look after him- 
self without carrying it about, had apparently 
thrust it hastily into the ammunition wagon on 
top of the cartridges. At any rate there the 
Eagle of the 9th Light Infantry was found, and 
so it was regained. The broken staff and flag 
were missing and were never seen again, but the 
all-important Eagle had been recovered. It was 
hurriedly mounted on a hop-pole, found leaning 
against a peasant's hut near by, which was im- 
provised for a staff, and on that the Eagle was 
carried to the close of the fighting that day, 
after which the 9th retreated with the rest of 
Bernadotte's corps. 

Napoleon specially decorated the lieutenant 
who recovered the Eagle, and who also had 
led more than one of the charges to rescue it in 
the earlier fighting. He gave him the cross of 
the Legion of Honour with a money grant. He 
further recorded the recovery of the Eagle — 
though without mentioning how it was got back 



ON THE FIRST DAY AT EYLAU 153 

— in the 55th Bulletin of the Grand Army, dated 
Warsaw, January 29, 1807 : 

" The Eagle of the 9th Light Infantry was 
taken by the enemy, but, realising the deep 
disgrace with which their brave regiment would 
be covered for ever, and from which neither 
victory nor the glory acquired in a hundred 
combats could have removed the stigma, the 
soldiers, animated with an inconceivable ardour, 
precipitated themselves on the enemy and routed 
them and recovered their Eagle." 

So Napoleon wrote history. 

Two Eagles met their fate in the first day's 
fighting at Eylau — in the preliminary combat 
on February 7, which formed the opening phase 
of the terrific encounter next day. At Eylau — 
a small township some twenty-two miles to the 
south of Konigsburg — ^Napoleon in person com- 
manded with 80,000 men in the field, and met 
with his first serious check in a European war. 
In following up the Russian rear-guard on the 
afternoon of the 7th, as it fell slowly back to 
rejoin its main body, drawn up in position on the 
farther side of Eylau, on ground chosen before- 
hand by the Russian leader for making a stand, 
two of Napoleon's battalions, while pressing 
hotly forward after the enemy over the open 
plain, some two miles from Eylau, were over- 
powered and cut to pieces. They had charged 
and were driving in the nearest Russians to them, 
when a Russian cavalry regiment, the St. Peters- 



154 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

burg Dragoons, unexpectedly came on the scene. 
Sweeping round amidst the tumult of the fighting, 
the dragoons rode into them on the flank. The 
two battalions were slaughtered almost to a 
man within five minutes, before help could get 
to them, and their Eagles were snatched up and 
borne away. It was an act of expiation for the 
St. Petersburg Dragoons. On the previous day 
Murat's pursuing hussars had charged and 
broken them, putting them to flight, and in a 
wild panic they had ridden over one of their own 
regiments, trampling their comrades down, with 
loss of life. To retrieve their character the St. 
Petersburg Dragoons now went savagely at the 
two French battalions, riding them down with 
reckless daring and relentless fury, giving no 
quarter. Their capture of two of Napoleon's 
Eagles in one charge, the taking of two Eagles 
by a single regiment, stands on its own account 
as a unique achievement. 

Eylau — the historic battle of February 8, 1807 
— was fought in the depth of winter ; in the 
midst of a flat expanse of a desolate snow-plain 
and ice-bound marshes ; under dreary lowering 
skies of leaden grey ; amid howling gusts of 
piercing wind, with driving snow-storms sweep- 
ing intermittently across the field of battle. A 
hundred and fifty thousand men on both sides 
faced each other at the break of day, after passing 
the night with their outposts within shot of one 
another, the soldiers all lying in an open bivouac 





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GOING FORWARD TO THEIR DOOM 155 

on the snow, round their watch-fires, wrapped 
up in their cloaks, the only shelter from the bitter 
cold. They fronted each other in the grey dawn 
*' within half-cannon shot, their immense masses 
distributed in dense columns over a space in 
breadth less than four miles. Between them 
lay the field of battle, a wide stretch of unen- 
closed ground, rising on the Russian side to a 
range of small hills. All over the plain, ponds 
and marshes intersected the ground, but far and 
wide all was now covered over with ice and 
deep snow." 

Napoleon began the battle with a fierce can- 
nonade, opening a terrific fire all along the line 
with no fewer than 350 guns. The Russians 
replied at once, firing back even more furiously 
and with yet more guns. For almost an hour 
nearly 800 cannon belched forth shot and 
shell on either side ; an artillery duel perhaps 
unparalleled in war. Then, in the midst of 
the cannonade. Napoleon launched his first 
attack. Fifteen thousand men of Augereau's 
corps moved out from the centre of the French 
line to storm the Russian position. They went 
forward, massed in two immense colums, with, 
in support, a third column of one of Soult's 
divisions. 

They went forward to their doom : to meet 
disaster, swift, terrible, overwhelming, and to 
leave two of their Eagles in the hands of the 
enemy as mementos of their fate. Yet they were 



156 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

not given up ; neither of those Eagles was 
surrendered. They remained on the field amid 
the dead ; left behind because there was not a 
man living of their regiments to defend them. 
They lay where they fell, surrounded by the 
soldiers who had died in their defence ; lying 
on the snow for the Cossacks to pick up and 
carry away. They were the Eagles of the 14ith 
and the 24th of the Line. 

The Russians turned their guns on Augereau's 
corps directly it commenced its advance ; it 
was sheer massacre for the French, as the fierce 
tornado of cannon-balls crashed into the thick 
of the densely massed columns. Whole com- 
panies were swept away, mowed down, on every 
side. " Within a quarter of an hour, half of the 
corps were struck down." The rest, though, 
with stolid endurance, held firmly on their way. 
The soldiers went doggedly on ; only halting 
for a moment now and again to close up their 
shattered ranks. At that moment, as they were 
nearing the Russian position, a furious snow- 
storm burst over the battlefield, the snow blowing 
right in the faces of the French. " It was im- 
possible," one of the survivors told, " to see 
anything at all in front ; we could at times barely 
see a foot before us." All, in spite of that, how- 
ever, laboured bravely to get forward ; without 
wavering, and regardless of the merciless fire of 
the Russian guns, which never ceased for one 
moment. 



OVERWHELMED IN A SNOWSTORM 157 

Then, as the snow-blinded soldiers struggled 
on, when the storm of whirling snow was at its 
worst, all in an instant the catastrophe hap- 
pened. Without warning, coming from no- 
where, as it seemed, an enormous mass of Russian 
horse, dragoons and Cossacks, charged suddenly, 
amid an infernal din of furious shouting, into 
them. " So thick was the snow-storm, and so 
unexpected the onset, that the assailants were 
only a few feet off, and the long lances of the 
Cossacks almost touching the French infantry 
when they were first discerned." The Russians 
swept down on all sides of the two divisions ; 
charging them in front and flanks and rear at 
once, the dragoons sabring them right and left, 
the Cossacks stabbing at them with their long 
eighteen-foot lances. 

" The combat was not of more than a few 
minutes' duration ; the corps, charged at once 
by foot and horse with the utmost vigour, 
broke and fled in the wildest disorder back 
into Eylau, closely pursued by the Russian 
cavalry and Cossacks, who made such havoc, 
that the whole, above 15,000 strong, were, with 
the exception of 1,500 men, taken or destroyed ; 
and Augereau himself, with his two generals of 
divisions, Desjardins and Heudelet, was desper- 
ately wounded." 

Cut off in one part of the field and hemmed in, 
the 24th of the Line, " one of the finest regiments 
in the Grand Army, and itself almost equal to a 



158 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

brigade," as a French officer speaks of it, was 
destroyed to a man. It refused to turn its back 
to the enemy, and stood its ground to face its 
fate. The 24th were slaughtered as they stood 
in their ranks. Colonel Semele and a devoted 
band of soldiers fought round the Eagle to the 
last, and fell dead beside it. A Cossack picked 
the Eagle up and rode off with it. 

The 14th had led the attack. It had lost 
heavily from the Russian cannonade, but was 
still pressing on when the cavalry came charging 
down. The regiments next following it, however, 
had suffered still more heavily from the artillery 
fire. They were swept away en masse by the 
Cossack rush. Thus the 14th were cut off and 
left by themselves, barely half a battalion of 
men in numbers, in the midst of the raging 
torrent of Cossacks and dragoons. The sur- 
vivors hastily threw themselves into a square 
on and round a low elevation or hillock of snow. 
There, with their Eagle in their midst, they 
stood at bay, refusing to retire without direct 
orders from their marshal. 

Marbot, in his memoirs, describes the fate of 
the 14th, to which he was sent with a message from 
Napoleon. He was one of Augereau's aides de 
camp. It was just after the wounded marshal 
had been carried back to the churchyard of the 
village of Eylau, the centre of the French position, 
whence Napoleon, on horseback, among his 
personal suite, had witnessed the disaster. Ail 



ISOLATED AND SURROUNDED 159 

could see the 14th standing there, isolated and 
surrounded ; "we could see that the intrepid 
regiment, surrounded by the enemy, was bran- 
dishing the Eagle in the air, to show that it still 
held its ground and wanted help." Napoleon, 
" touched by the grand devotion of these brave 
men, resolved to try to save them. He gave 
orders that an officer should be sent to tell 
them to try to make their way back towards 
the army. Cavalry would charge out to help 
them. It looked," says Marbot, "almost im- 
possible to get through the thronging Cossacks ; 
but Napoleon's command had to be obeyed. 

" A brave captain of engineers named Frois- 
sart, who, though not an aide de camp, was on 
Augereau's staff, happened to be nearest him, 
and was told to carry the order to the 14th. 
Froissart galloped off : we lost sight of him in 
the midst of the Cossacks, and never saw him 
again or heard what became of him. The mar- 
shal, seeing that the 14th did not move, then sent 
an officer named David. He had the same fate 
as Froissart ; we never heard of him again. 
Probably both were killed and stripped, and could 
not be recognised among the many corpses which 
covered the ground. For the third time the 
marshal called, ' The officer for duty ! ' It was 
my turn." 

Marbot had seen his two predecessors go off 
with their swords drawn, as though they intended 
to defend themselves against attacks on the 
12 



160 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

way. He had remarked that, and now proposed 
another method for himself. 

" To attempt defence was madness ; it meant 
stopping to fight amidst a multitude of enemies. 
I went otherwise to work. Leaving my sword 
in its scabbard, I considered myself rather as a 
rider who is trying to win a steeple-chase and 
goes as quickly as possible by the shortest line 
towards the appointed goal without troubling 
about what is to right or left of his path. My 
goal was the hillock on which stood the 14th, 
and I resolved to get there without taking 
heed of the Cossacks. I tried to put them out 
of my mind entirely. The plan answered to per- 
fection. 

" Lisette [Marbot's charger], flying rather 
than galloping, moving more lightly than a 
swallow, darted over the intervening space, 
leaping the heaps of dead men and horses, the 
ditches, the broken gun-carriages, the half-ex- 
tinguished bivouac fires. Thousands of Cossacks 
swarmed over the plain. The first who caught 
sight of me behaved like sportsmen who, while 
beating, start a hare and tell of its whereabouts 
to each other with shouts of ' Your side ! ' 
None of the Cossacks tried to stop me. Perhaps 
it was because of the amazing speed of my 
mare ; perhaps — probably — because there were 
so many of them swarming round that each 
thought I could not escape from his comrades 
farther on. At any rate I got through them all, 



*'AT LAST I WAS IN THE SQUARE ! '' 161 

and without scratch either to myself or to my 
mare, and managed to reach where the 14th 
stood. 

" I found them in square on top of their 
hillock, but the slope all round was very slight, 
and the Russian cavalry had been able to attack 
them with several charges. All, though, had 
been beaten off, and the regiment stood sur- 
rounded by a circle of dead horses and dragoons. 
The corpses indeed formed a kind of rampart 
round our men, and made by now their position 
almost inaccessible to mounted men. So I 
found, for in spite of the help of our men, I had 
much difficulty in getting across this horrible 
entrenchment. At last, however, I was in the 
square." 

The major of the 14th was the senior officer 
left alive, and to him Marbot gave Napoleon's 
order. But it was absolutely impossible to 
carry it out ; there were too few men left to 
make the attempt possible. They would be 
overpowered, said the major to Marbot, before 
they had gone half a dozen steps. They were 
past hope now, unless the cavalry could cut 
their way to them at once. Marbot must save 
himself and get back at once. He must take 
their Eagle back with him and deliver it into 
Napoleon's own hands. " I see no means left 
of saving the regiment," were the major's words. 
" Return to the Emperor, and bid him farewell 
from the 14th of the Line. We have faithfully 



162 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

obeyed his orders in defence of the Eagle. Bear 
him back his Eagle which he entrusted to us, 
which now we have no hope of defending longer. 
It would add too much to the bitterness of death 
for us to see it fall into the hands of the enemy." 
The major handed the Eagle to Marbot and 
then saluted it, amid shouts of " Vive I'Em- 
pereur ! " from the men round. 

Marbot took the Eagle, and, as the only means 
of preserving it during his ride back, tried to 
break it off from its stout pole so as to conceal 
it under his cloak. He was in the act of leaning 
forward to get a purchase in order to break 
the oaken staff, when he was suddenly rendered 
powerless by the wind of a grape-shot It was 
a marvellous escape from death. The shot 
actually went through his hat, within a quarter 
of an inch of his head. It deprived him, as he 
describes, of all power and sensation, although 
he still remained fixed in his saddle, his eyes 
witnessing the last scene, the fate of the 14th. 
The square was finally rushed by a swarm of 
Russian grenadiers, as Marbot says, who came 
charging up to the spot — " big men with mitre- 
shaped caps bound in brass. 

" These men hurled themselves furiously on 
the feeble remains of the 14th. Our poor 
fellows had little strength left for resistance, 
weakened as they were by hardships and 
privations. They had for days been only ex- 
isting on potatoes and melted snow, and on that 



FIGHTING TO THE LAST MAN 163 

morning had not had time to prepare even that 
wretched meal. Yet they made bravely what 
fight they could with their bayonets, and when, 
as too soon happened, the square was broken, 
they tried to hold together in groups, fighting 
back to back and keeping up the unequal fight 
to the last man." 

Those nearest Marbot, so as not to be bayoneted 
from behind, stood all round him with their 
backs to the mare, hemmed in by a ring of Rus- 
sians, some shooting down the hapless French- 
men, others killing them with the bayonet. 

Marbot, recovering his senses, got at the last 
moment an unexpected chance of escape. His 
mare, Lisette, he says, " of a notoriously savage 
temper," was pricked by a bayonet apparently, 
for she suddenly sprang forward, lashing out and 
kicking and biting. She crashed through the 
nearest Russians and galloped off with Marbot 
on her back towards Eylau. He was mistaken 
by the Cossacks, he thought, for a Russian officer, 
and rode on until suddenly Lisette collapsed 
beneath him, and Marbot rolled off into the 
snow, where he lay insensible for some hours. 
He lay there until a marauder on the field after 
the battle tried to strip him of his gold-laced 
uniform. That roused him, and he cried for help, 
which came ; but the Eagle of the 14th had 
disappeared. 

Two Eagles of St. Hilaire's division of Soult's 
corps were taken at about the same time that 



164 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

the 14th met its fate. One was that of the 
10th Light Infantry, ridden down while hasten- 
ing forward to support Augereau. The 10th 
missed its way in the snowstorm and, blunder- 
ing close under the Russian guns, was " deci- 
mated by grape." Immediately after that, 
while reeling under the shock, and trying to 
reform its ranks, the Russian dragoons dashed 
into it. They burst into its midst at full 
gallop, " unseen until they were actually 
among us." No help was near, and in less than 
three minutes the luckless 10th Light Infantry 
had ceased to exist. The second of Soult's 
Eagles that was lost at Eylau was that of a 
battalion of the 28th of the Line, which also 
perished, victims to the sabres of the Russian 
horsemen. It was a little later in the day, just 
after the 28th had made a successful bayonet 
charge on the Russian infantry. They were in 
the midst of their combat when the dragoons 
dashed into them, rode through them, and 
scattered them, bearing off the Eagle, snatched 
from the hands of the Eagle-bearer, who was cut 
down in the melee. 

The Heart of the " First Grenadier of France " 
nearly went to St. Petersburg at the same time, 
The 46th and 28th together formed General 
Levasseur's division in Soult's corps, and both 
were overwhelmed at the same time by the 
Russian dragoons. The more fortunate 46th 
saved both their Eagle and the silver casket 



ii 



"THE FIRST GRENADIER OF FRANCE" 165 

in which the heart of La Tour d'Auvergne was 
kept enshrined. The casket was worn, strapped 
on a velvet shield, on the chest of the senior 
grenadier sergeant of the First Battalion, whose 
station was next the Eagle-bearer. It was with 
the 46th, then known as the 46th Demi-Brigade, 
that the heroic " Premier Grenadier de France " 
was serving as a captain when he met his death 
in the year of Hohenlinden, while in the act of 
capturing an Austrian standard. The 46th of 
the Line of the modern French Army keeps up 
to-day the traditional practice, first ordered by 
Moreau, the victor of Hohenlinden, of calling 
his name first of all at regimental parades. 
It was revived some thirty years ago, after being 
in desuetude since 1809. " Immediately the 
Colonel has saluted the flag," describes one of 
the officers of the regiment, " the Captain com- 
manding the colour-company steps forward and, 
facing the men, calls in a loud voice ' La Tour 
d'Auvergne,' on which the senior sergeant of 
the company steps out two paces and replies, 
in a loud voice also, ' Mort au Champ d'Hon- 
neur ! ' — 'Dead on the Field of Honour ! ' '* 

The heart of La Tour d'Auvergne in its silver 
casket was ceremoniously deposited by the 
regiment at the Invalides in 1904, eight years 
ago. 

The 25th of the Line saved its Eagle, but lost 
on the field every single one of its officers. A 
plainly built obelisk with the brief inscription, 



166 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

" To the Memory of the Officers of the 25th,* 
was erected by Napoleon to commemorate their 
fate at Eylau. 

Two Eagles of Davout's corps were lost at 
Eylau. One was that of the 18th — the sole 
loss of an Eagle in the battle, as it so happens, 
that it suited Napoleon's purpose to admit 
publicly. This is what he said of it in his 
Eylau Bulletin — the 58th Bulletin of the Grand 
Army : 

" The Eagle of one of the battalions of the 
18th Regiment is missing. It has probably 
fallen into the hands of the enemy, but no re- 
proach can attach to this regiment in the pre- 
dicament in which it was placed. It is a mere 
accident of war. The Emperor will give the 
18th another Eagle when it has taken a standard 
from the enemy." 

Comments on this, by the way, a British 
officer, Colonel Sir Robert Wilson, who was 
attached to the Russian army as British military 
commissioner : 

" Admirable ! the accidental loss of one Eagle 
and only one ! Colonel Beckendorff, then, did 
not carry twelve Eagles (and, moreover, several 
colours from which the Eagles had been un- 
screwed) to Petersburg, where they now are for 
the inspection of the world ! " 

Napoleon made no other open reference to 
the loss of Eagles at Eylau ; but, as he showed 
a little later, he felt what had happened. On the 



TWO MORE EAGLES LOST 167 

other hand, outside France, many people dis- 
beHeved the Russian official despatches. " The 
number of Eagles said to be taken," wrote the 
editor of a London newspaper, " is astounding, 
indeed incredible." 

The 18th lost their Eagle in the fierce fighting 
on the extreme right of the battlefield, where, 
after storming the village of Serpallen, Morand's 
division captured a Russian battery, bayoneting 
the gunners. As they took the guns a Russian 
cavalry brigade came hastening to the spot to 
the rescue. Taking the 18th on the flank, the 
Russians rode them down, breaking the regi- 
ment up and scattering it. The Eagle dis- 
appeared in the midst of the fight. The Eagle 
of the 51st of the Line was the other that was 
lost in Davout's corps. That was taken by the 
Prussian division which fought at Eylau ; the 
last remnant of the Jena army still combating 
in the field. The Prussians, some 12,000 in 
number, had made good their escape to the 
Polish frontier and reached the battlefield of 
Eylau at the close of the fight, in time to 
strike in and take vengeance for their country- 
men. They were, however, deprived in the end 
of their trophy. The captured Eagle of the 
51st was claimed from them by the Russian 
general after the battle, and sent with the eleven 
others to St. Petersburg, where it now is. 

Two others of Davout's Eagles which came 
through at Eylau b^d narrow escapes. They 



168 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

were those of the 17th and 30th of the Line. 
The 17th was one of the regiments ridden down 
by Towazysky's dragoons, the troopers who 
carried off the Eagle of the 18th. In their 
charge the dragoons broke up the 17th as well, 
and the Eagle was left with only a few men 
near by to defend it. They were in the midst 
of the dragoons as the Russians galloped through, 
slashing with their sabres at all within reach. 
As the only means of saving the Eagle, Loc- 
queneux, a fou7Tier, or quartermaster-sergeant, 
" thrust the Eagle under the snow and stood 
on it shouting for help. Colonel Mallet heard 
the cry and ran to the rescue. With a few men 
who rallied to the spot he succeeded in getting 
the Eagle away from among the debris of the 
17th." At roll-call next morning only one 
man in five answered to his name. Napoleon, 
on his ride over the field, happening to pass by 
while the muster was being held, the gallant 
fourrier was brought before him and presented 
with a lieutenant's commission and an annuity 
of 2,000 francs. The Eagle of the 30th of the 
Line, another of Morand's regiments, was saved 
from capture in like manner by the personal 
devotion of another fourrier, Morin by name. 
All round him men were falling, and he himself 
had been severely wounded, but the brave 
fellow had just strength enough to bury the 
Eagle under the snow. He fainted from loss 
of blood as he did it. Morin was found next 



FOUR CUIRASSIER EAGLES TAKEN 169 

morning just alive, outstretched over where 
the precious Eagle lay concealed. He was able 
to make signs and indicate that it was lying 
underneath the snow, and then he died. 

Four cavalry Eagles, those of cuirassier regi- 
ments, made up the tale of twelve lost by 
Napoleon in the two days at Eylau. Platoff' s 
Cossacks of the Don captured the four. They 
swooped down on Murat's cavalry, while out of 
hand and partially dispersed after breaking 
through the Russian centre, at the close of 
Murat's desperate charge at the head of seventy 
squadrons to save the survivors of the massacre 
of Augereau's ill-fated battalions. Of one cuir- 
assier regiment only 18 men managed to regain 
their own lines, leaving 530 of their comrades 
on the field to be stripped of their shining 
armour by the Cossacks. 

The Eagle of the Old Guard led a charge at 
Eylau at the head of the Grenadiers. The Guard 
came into action to beat back a daring Russian 
counter-attack on the centre of Napoleon's 
position, which immediately followed the anni- 
hilation of Augereau's corps. Napoleon himself 
gave the order for the Guard to go forward. 
" The Emperor," describes Caulaincourt, who 
was on Napoleon's staff, and near him through- 
out, " standing erect in the stirrups, his glass 
at his eye, was the first to realise that the black 
shadow steadily drawing near through the veil 
of the snow-storm must be the columns of the 



170 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

Russian reserve.^ He immediately sent against 
them two battalions of the Grenadiers of the 
Guard commanded by General Dorsenne." It 
was just after Murat had been ordered to 
make his charge. 

Dorsenne — " Le Beau Dorsenne," he was uni- 
versally called ; he had the reputation of being 
the handsomest man in the whole of the Grand 
Army — started off on the instant, rapidly 
deploying his men into lines as he moved for- 
ward, and with the Eagle of the Grenadiers of 
the Guard in advance of the centre of the front 
line. The Old Guard moved out in stately 
order, marching with clockwork precision, mus- 
kets at the support — held erect at the side and 
steadied and supported with one arm held 
stiffly across. One of the officers who rode 
beside Dorsenne suggested to the general as 
they were nearing the Russians to open fire. 
" Non ! " was the haughty answer. " Grena- 
diers I'arme a bras ! La Vieille Garde ne se 
bat qu'a la baionette ! " " No ! Arms at the 
support ! The Old Guard only fights at the 
point of the bayonet ! ") 

They reached the Russians, who, on their side, 

^ The hat that Napoleon wore at Eylau is kept in the little 
crypt beside Napoleon's tomb in the Invalides. It is the identical 
one represented in the colossal picture of the battle by Gros, 
to be seen at the Louvre, and was given to Gros for the picture. 
At the second Funeral of Napoleon in 1840, it figured beside the 
coffin, with the Emperor's decorations and the aword Napoleon 
wore at Austerlitz. 



THE EAGLE OF THE OLD GUARD 171 

seemed for the moment as if spellbound at the 
sight of them. The nearest Russians stopped 
short. They stood stock-still, rooted in the 
ground as it were, gazing at the sudden appari- 
tion of the solid wall of 2,000 veteran giants in 
their huge towering bear-skins. The next in- 
stant the battalion guns of the Guard, which 
accompanied the advance on either flank, opened 
with a burst of fire at short range into the thick 
of the Russians. At once, down came the 
gleaming rows of bayonets, and, like one man, 
the Old Guard sprang forward and charged into 
the enemy. A moment before the bayonets 
crossed a squadron of the Chasseurs of the 
Guard, the men on duty as Napoleon's own 
personal escort, sent forward by the Emperor 
himself to assist the Grenadiers, dashed into the 
rear of the Russian column, and " drove it for- 
ward on our Grenadiers, who received it with 
fixed bayonets." 

Just before that it was that the Eagle of the 
Old Guard had its adventure. A shell dropped 
right in front of it and burst. The fragments 
smashed the Eagle pole in two places, just above 
and below the hands of the Eagle-bearer. The 
Eagle fell to the ground at the feet of the Rus- 
sians. But they had not time to get hold of it. 
Instantly Lieutenant Morlay, the Eagle-bearer, 
sprang forward and recovered it. Picking the 
Eagle up, with the flag and fragment of pole 
that was left, Morlay snatched hold of a grena- 



172 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

dier's musket and jammed the piece of the staff 
into the muzzle beside the bayonet. He carried 
the Eagle in that manner throughout the rest of 
the battle.^ 

^ A gallant young officer of the Guard was the first man to 
break through the Russian line in front. With half a dozen 
grenadiers he made a dash forward, just as the chasseurs made 
their attack. Captain Ernest Auzoni — that was the young 
officer's name — caught sight of a Russian flag a few paces from 
him, and, calling on the men of his company, led straight at it, 
cutting his way through. " Courage ! " he shouted. " Brave 
comrades ! Follow me ! " Auzoni, describes Caulaincom-t, 
" rushed forward sword in hand, followed by his company, and 
penetrated the compact centre of the Russian column : his 
sudden assault broke their ranks, and oiir grenadiers burst in 
through the passage opened to them by the brave Auzoni." 

Napoleon, from his post near at hand, was also an eye- 
witness of the captain's daring. On the Russians falling back 
after the routing of the column, as the Guard were re-forming 
for a fresh advance, he summoned Auzoni and the men of his 
company before him. " Captain Auzoni," began Napoleon as 
they stood in front of him, " you well deserve the honour of 
commanding my ' veteran ' vieux moustaches ; you have most 
nobly distinguished yoiirself. You have won an officer's cross 
and an annuity of two thousand francs. You were made captain 
at the beginning of the campaign, and I hope you will return 
to Paris with still higher rank. A man who earns his honours 
on the field of battle stands very high in my estimation ! " 
Turning then to the soldiers, Napoleon added : " I award ten 
crosses to your company ! " With an enthusiastic cheer the 
company marched off to rejoin their comrades, and as Caulain- 
court puts it, " the same men advanced to meet the enemy's 
fire with a degree of courage and enthusiasm which is impossible 
to describe." 

The brave young Guardsman captain, though, did not see 
Paris again. Auzoni met his fate at Eylau. He fell later in the 
day, in another charge, in which he took a second Russian flag. 
Napoleon himself discovered him, lying at the last gasp among 
the mortally wounded on the field. It was next day, as Napoleon, 
in accordance with his invariable practice, was riding over the 
scene of the battle. 

" Near a battery which had been abandoned by the enemy," 



I 



AT MIDNIGHT AFTER THE BATTLE 178 

A hundred and fifty thousand combatants had 
faced one another at daybreak. An hour before 
midnight, when the last shots were fired, 50,000 
men lay dead or wounded on the field. " Never,*' 
if we may recall the grim picture of the scene 
next day that Alison has drawn, " was spectacle 
so dreadful as that field presented on the follow- 
ing morning. Above 50,000 men lay in the 
space of two leagues, weltering in blood. The 
wounds were, for the most part, of the severest 
kind, from the extraordinary quantity of cannon- 
to use again the words of Caulaincourt, " about 150 or 200 French 
grenadiers were lying dead, surrounded by four times their 
number of Russians. They were lying weltering in a river of 
blood, amid broken gun-carriages, muskets, swords, and other 
debris. They had plainly fought with the most determined 
fury, for every corpse showed niunerous and horrible woimids. 
A feeble cry of ' Vive I'Emperevir ! ' was heard as we rode up. 
It came from the middle of this moxxntain of dead, and all eyes 
were turned instantly to the spot whence the voice proceeded. 
Half concealed beneath a tattered flag lay a yoiing officer whose 
breast was decorated with an order. He was still alive, and, 
though covered with many wounds, as we stopped by him he 
managed to raise himself so as to rest on his elbow. But his 
handsome face was overcast with the livid hue of death. He 
recognised the Emperor, and, in a feeble, faltering voice, ex- 
claimed : ' God bless your Majesty ! Farewell, farewell ! Oh, 
my poor mother ! ' He turned a look of supplication towards 
the Emperor, and with that, with the words on his lips, ' To my 
country, to dear France — ^my last thoughts ! ' he fell back dead. 

" Napoleon seemed riveted to the spot. ' Brave men ! ' 
he exclaimed. ' Brave Auzoni ! Noble young fellow ! Ah, 
this is a frightful scene ! The annuity shall go to his mother : 
let the order be presented for my signature as soon as possible ! ' 
Then, turning to Surgeon Ivan, who accompanied him, he said : 
' Examine poor Auzoni's wounds and see what can be done for 
him ! ' Nothing however, could be done : the brave youth was 
beyond medical aid." 



in IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

balls which had been discharged during the action 
and the close proximity of the contending masses 
to the deadly batteries, which spread grape at 
half -musket shot through their ranks. Though 
stretched on the cold snow and exposed to the 
severity of an Arctic winter, the sufferers were 
burning with thirst, and piteous cries were heard 
on all sides for water, or assistance to extricate 
the wounded men from beneath the heaps of 
slain or load of horses by which they were 
crushed. Six thousand of these noble animals 
encumbered the field, or, maddened with pain, 
were shrieking aloud amidst the stifled groans 
of the wounded. Broken gun-carriages, dis- 
mounted cannon, fragments of blown-up cais- 
sons, scattered balls, lay in wild confusion amidst 
casques, cuirassiers, and burning hamlets, casting 
a livid light over a field of snow. Subdued by 
loss of blood, tamed by cold, exhausted by 
hunger, the foemen lay side by side, amidst the 
general wreck. The Cossack was to be seen 
beside the Italian ; the gay vine-dresser from 
the banks of the Garonne lay athwart the stern 
peasant from the plains of the Ukraine." 

When Napoleon took his ride over the field, 
** the men exhibited none of their wonted en- 
thusiasm ; no cries of ' Vive I'Empereur ! ' were 
heard ; the bloody surface echoed only with the 
cries of suffering or the groans of woe." 

Sixteen Russian standards were sent to Paris 
after Eylau ; Napoleon's set-off to the twelve 



THE ''TEMPLE OF VICTORY" 175 

Eagles taken to St. Petersburg. They were to 
be hung, he directed, temporarily at the In- 
valides, until such time as the conversion of the 
former Church of the Madeleine into Napoleon's 
grandiose " Temple of Victory " should be 
effected — a project that was fated never to be 
accomplished. There, designed Napoleon, all 
the trophies of the Grand Army would find their 
final resting-place, in a splendid edifice, de- 
signed externally after the Parthenon at Athens. 
Within, the trophies would be displayed, amidst 
colonnades of Corinthian pillars of marble and 
granite and a mass of decorative sculptures, 
statues of marshals and generals who had met 
their death in battle, and bas-reliefs of famous 
colonels, before a lofty marble curule chair, 
which Napoleon would occupy as a throne on 
great occasions. "It is a Temple I desire," he 
laid down, writing from his camp in Poland, " not 
a church ; and everything must be made in a 
chaste, severe, and durable style, and be suitable 
for solemnities at all times and all hours." 

Two more Eagles had yet to go to St. Peters- 
burg before the war was over — the Eagle of the 
15th of the Line and another. They were the 
spoils that the beaten Russian army carried off 
from the battle of Friedland, fought some six 
months after Eylau, on July 14. Napoleon 
won one of his most famous victories at Friedland, 
and one that he afterwards recorded on the 
colours of all the regiments that fought in the 
13 



ire IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

battle ; but the defeated army carried back with 
them two more of his Eagles. 

The Eagle of the 15th of the Line, a regiment 
of Marshal Ney's corps, was lost in a bayonet 
charge while fighting the Russian Imperial 
Guard. The second Eagle was left among the 
dead in the repulse of a column of Marshal 
Lannes' corps in the earlier part of the battle. 
" A column of 3,000 men advanced straight 
against Friedland. They were permitted to ap- 
proach close to the Russian cannon without a 
single shot being fired, when suddenly the whole 
opened with grape, and with such effect that in 
a few minutes a thousand men were struck down, 
the column routed, and the Eagle taken." 

One of the regiments of the column saved 
itself as it fell back by rallying round its Eagle. 
As at Eylau, so at Friedland the Russian dragoons 
dashed down among the broken battalions 
while trying to re-form under the murderous 
cannonade. The 50th of the Line had been near 
the head of the column, and more than half of 
its men had been shot down. The dragoons were 
cutting their way through to the Eagle, when 
Adjutant Labourie snatched it from its wounded 
bearer, and, holding it up, shouted to the men : 
*' Rally round the Eagle. We must defend it 
to the death I " A small square hastily formed 
round him, and, stubbornly resisting, they kept 
the Russian dragoons off and fought their way 
back to safety with the Eagle. 



GOLDEN WREATHS FOR THE EAGLES 177 

The Peace of Tilsit closed the war within a 
month of Friedland. 

The welcome-home of Paris to the Old Guard, 
and public decoration of the Eagles with crowns 
of gold, was the curtain-scene and grand finale 
of the Jena-Friedland drama. To all the regi- 
ments of the Grand Army under fire at Jena, 
Friedland, and Eylau, wreaths of gold, to be 
affixed round the necks of their Eagles, were 
voted by the Municipality of Paris. The wreaths 
were to be publicly presented to each regiment 
on its return to France. 

The Guard were the first to receive theirs, and 
their arrival in the capital was made the oc- 
casion of a series of civic fetes ; announced 
officially as being " offered in tribute to the 
Glory of the Grand Army." Wednesday, 
November 25, 1807, was the day on which the 
Guard were due to reach Paris. All had been 
made ready to accord them a magnificent re- 
ception. 

The Prefect of the Seine, at the head of the City 
magistrates and the Municipal Councillors of 
Paris, all in their robes and chains and glittering 
insignia of office, escorted by a mounted cohort 
of National Guards, met the returning veterans 
at the Barrier on the Strasburg road. Marshal 
Bessieres led the Guard, who marched up with 
bands playing and resplendent in their full-dress 
uniforms, horse and foot and artillery — 12,000 
men in all. A gigantic triumphal arch was 



178 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

set up beyond the Barrier, wide enough for 
twenty men to march through abreast. It was 
the approach to a wide arena on which the troops 
drew up, massed in front of a lofty platform, 
decked out with flags and wreaths of evergreens 
and bright-coloured hangings. There the Pre- 
fect took his place with his entourage as the 
soldiers drew near. Grand-stands to accom- 
modate a crowd of sightseers surrounded the 
arena. 

The Old Guard marched in and drew up in 
close order, on which the proceedings opened 
with the civic address. " Heroes of Jena, of 
Eylau, of Friedland," began the Prefect, "con- 
querors of a splendid peace, immortal thanks are 
your due from France! We salute you. Eagles 
of war, the symbols of the might of our noble- 
hearted Emperor ! You have made known 
throughout the world, with his great name, the 
glory of victorious France ! '* So, in grandilo- 
quent style, the address commenced. At its close 
the regiments of the Guards defiled past the 
platform in turn — Carabineers and Cuirassiers, 
Chasseurs, Dragoons, and Hussars, and the bat- 
talions of veteran Grenadiers. Round the neck 
of each Eagle, as its corps came up, the Prefect 
hung a wreath of laurel-leaves in gold. 

Then came the triumphal march through the 
streets of Paris to the Tuileries, amid cheering 
crowds, nearly beside themselves with excite- 
ment and enthusiasm, and with difficulty kept 



BANQUETED BY THE CITY OF PARIS 179 

back from breaking through the rows of Na- 
tional Guards who lined the pavement, to hug 
the grim bearskin-hatted warriors. The Eagles 
deposited with ceremony in the Imperial Guard- 
room of the Palace of the Tuileries, the horse- 
men dismounted in the Square of the Car- 
rousel, muskets were piled, and all marched off 
to the Champs Ely sees. An immense banquet 
awaited them there, under vast marquees — 
shelter that the men appreciated, for it turned 
out a miserably wet afternoon. 

The banquet in the Champs Elys^es was the 
first in the round of festivities with which Paris 
welcomed home the " Victors over Europe." 
The fetes lasted over three days, and terminated 
in a grand reception given by the Senate to all 
ranks of " Our Invincible Guard " in the Gardens 
of the Luxembourg.^ 

^ The Old Guard was recruited from the elite of the Line. 
After every battle soldiers who had been particularly prominent 
in the fighting were specially transferred to the Old Guard ; a 
form of advancement much coveted among the rank and file. 
At all times there was great competition to enter the Guard, 
and every regimental colonel kept " waiting lists," in anticipation 
of valiancies, on which names were sometimes down for years. 
Service in the Old Guard meant, in addition to the prestige of 
enrolment in so favoured a corps, life amid the gaieties and plea- 
sures of Paris, with increased pay and personal privileges ; and 
the highly estimated honour of a special weekly inspection by 
the Emperor himself in the Courtyard of the Carrousel, at which 
Napoleon invariably walked in and out among the ranks, talking 
to the men ; and any Guardsman who had a grievance might then 
personally laj^^ it before the Emperor. The private in the Guard 
drew seven sous a day as compared with the one sou pay of the 
private of the Line. Off duty, the private of the Guard ranked 
on an equality with a sergeant of the Line, and in army social 



180 IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN 

oiroles was entitled to be addressed by the Linesmen he met as 
" Monsieur." 

Only men of unblemished record were qualified for admission 
to the Old Guard. A colonel of a Line regiment on one occasion 
sent a man into the Guard who turned out a mauvais sujet. 
Napoleon ordered the unfortunate colonel to be publicly repri- 
manded on parade, and confined to his quarters for three days ; 
and further had his name and offence put in General Army 
Orders, issued for universal circulation from the War Office, 
and posted up at the head- quarters of every regiment through- 
out the service. 



CHAPTER VI 

preparing for the future 

The " Eagle-Guard " 

The loss of twelve Eagles in one battle made a 
deep and lasting impression upon Napoleon. 
That twelve of his cherished emblems, those 
mementoes of victorious Caesar, for whose pres- 
tige he had advanced such exacting claims, should 
have fallen en bloc into the hands of the enemy- 
came as a galling blow to Napoleon's military 
pride . Twelve Eagles reft from amid the bayonets 
of the Grand Army on one battlefield : twelve 
Eagles paraded together as trophies through the 
capital of an exulting foe ! It was a poignantly 
felt humiliation for the mighty Imperator of the 
Field of Mars. And yet no default could be 
charged against the soldiers to whom these 
Eagles had been entrusted. All that men might 
do for their defence they had done. Most of 
the luckless battalions, indeed, had fought and 
fallen directly under the eyes of the Emperor 
himself, looking on from his post of vantage 
by the wall of Eylau churchyard. 
Napoleon, however, had already realised that 

m 



182 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

his distribution of an emblem to whose pre- 
servation he attached such extreme importance 
had been made on too lavish a scale. He had been 
imprudent in distributing such hostages to 
fortune broadcast ; there were too many Eagles 
on offer to the enemy. Napoleon, indeed, had 
already tacitly admitted that. Within two 
months of the opening of the first campaign of 
the Grand Army — during the Austerlitz cam- 
paign — immediately after Murat's daring gallop 
on Vienna, Napoleon had summarily directed all 
the light cavalry Eagles to be sent back from 
the front. Every Hussar and Chasseur regiment 
was ordered to return its three squadron 
Eagles to head-quarters forthwith, for sending 
back to France. In future, a new Army regula- 
tion laid down, those corps would not take their 
Eagles into the field at all. The regulation after 
that was extended to Dragoons ; and later to 
all Light Infantry battalions. No doubt it was 
a step dictated by prudence. In these corps 
particularly, from the nature of the duties they 
had normally to perform, the Eagles were 
peculiarly exposed to risk of isolation and 
capture. 

What had happened at Eylau, and several 
narrow escapes in hand-to-hand combats at 
Friedland, together with certain other incidents 
in that battle which had come under Napoleon's 
personal notice, where, through a nervous anxiety 
for the safety of their Eagles, some battalion 



NO MORE BATTALION EAGLES 183 

commanders had kept back round them men 
whose bayonets were badly wanted elsewhere, 
led to a further step. Napoleon took advantage 
of the general scheme for the reorganisation of 
the Grand Army, which he carried out in 1808, 
to recast entirely his original arrangement as 
to the Eagles. He reduced the numbers by two- 
thirds. 

Battalion Eagles were to be withdrawn in 
favour of Regimental Eagles. In the infantry, 
under the reorganisation scheme, there were to 
be five battalions to each regiment instead of 
three as heretofore ; but there would be only 
one Eagle in future for the entire regiment. 
The existing Second and Third battalions were 
ordered to give up the Eagles they had hitherto 
carried, which would find a resting-place at the 
Invalides. The Regimental Eagle would be borne 
by the First Battalion. The other battalions 
would carry only " f anions," small pennon- 
shaped flags. Each would have one *'f anion," a 
plain serge flag, of a distinctive colour for each 
battalion, without any mark or device on it, 
beyond the number of the battalion. 

The Imperial edict, issued early in 1808, laid 
down that for the special protection of the 
Regimental Eagle in battle a commissioned officer 
and two picked veterans were to be appointed 
as the " Eagle-Guard," replacing the sergeant- 
major and escort of the Battalion Eagles. The 
three were to be known as the First, Second, and 



184 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

Third Eagle-Bearers or •* Porte- Aigles." The 
officer to whose special charge the Regimental 
Eagle itself was committed was to be a senior 
lieutenant, " a man of proved valour, with not 
less than ten years' Army service, including 
service on the battlefield in four campaigns," 
specified as those of Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, and 
Friedland. He would receive captain's pay, and 
wear a gold-laced cocked hat and gold epaulettes. 
The two other Porte-Aigles were to be, in 
Napoleon's own words, " deux braves," of ten 
years' service in the ranks, and " non-lettr6s." 
On the last qualification, indeed, Napoleon laid 
peculiar stress. The two were to be, as the 
Emperor himself put it, " men who could neither 
read nor write, so that their only hope of pro- 
motion should be through acts of special courage 
and devotion." They would receive lieu- 
tenants' pay, have special privileges, and wear 
four gold lace chevrons on their arms. Only the 
Emperor could nominate or degrade Porte-Aigles. 
The Second and Third Porte-Aigles were to 
carry no weapons except heavy pistols, " to blow 
out the brains of an enemy attempting to lay 
hands on an Eagle." These were Napoleon's 
own words as to that, in his order of February 18, 
1808 : " Pour eviter que I'ardeur dans la melee ne 
les detourne de leur unique objet, de la garde 
de I'Aigle, le sabre et I'^pee leurs sont interdits. 
Us n'auront d'autres amies que plusieurs paires 
de pistolets, d'emploi que de veiller froidement 



PENNONS TO FRIGHTEN HORSES 185 

a brftler la cervelle de celui qui avancerait la 
main pour saisir I'Aigle." After the Wagram 
campaign of 1809 Napoleon substituted a helmet 
and defensive brass scale-epaulettes as the 
First Porte- Aigle's equipment. He gave the two 
soldiers of the Eagle-Guard a halberd each, with 
a pennon or banderol attached — Red for the 
Second Porte- Aigle, White for the Third — as well 
as a sword and a pair of large-bore pistols. The 
pennons were for use should mounted men attack 
the Eagle ; " for fluttering in front of the horses 
in order to make them rear and plunge and upset 
their riders." ^ 

Two more soldiers were added to the Eagle- 
Guard in 1813, as the Fourth and Fifth Porte- 
Aigles. They were armed with the same 
weapons as the others, and had respectively 
Yellow and Green pennons on their halberds. 

* Baron Lejeune, on the Imperial staff at Wagram, who was 
clever with his pencil, was specially desired by Napoleon to 
design the costume for the Eagle-Guard, as he himself relates. 
" Anxious to confer distinction on those brave fellows who had 
taken part in the actual defence of the flag, the Eagle of their 
regiment. Napoleon conceived the idea of giving them a costtune 
and equipment which should mark them out as specially honoured, 
and at the same time be suitable to the duties they had to per- 
form. The Emperor therefore sent for me and asked me to make 
a sketch of a costume such as he wished to give to what he called 
his ' Eagle-Guard,' or those non-commissioned officers whose 
oflBce it was to sxorround and defend the actual standard-bearers. 
The chief weapons of each were to be a pistol, a sword, and a 
lance, so that in the heat of the battle they would never have to 
trouble themselves about loading a gun. There was to be gold 
on their epaulettes, sword-belts, and helmets. I made a drawing 
and took it to the Emperor, and he sent it to the Minister of 
War with his own instructions on the subject." 



186 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

Yet further to add to the prestige of the 
Eagles, Napoleon, after Wagram, decreed the 
institution of a Special Order of Military Merit, 
which he called the " Order of the Trois Toisons 
d'Or" — something on the lines of our own 
Victoria Cross — certain of the provisions of 
which had direct reference to the Eagles. The 
decoration was to be conferred on men, whatever 
their rank, " distinguished in the defence of 
the Eagle of their regiment." Also, according to 
the 6th Article of the Constitution of the Order, 
" Les Aigles des regiments qui ont assiste avec 
distinction aux grandes batailles seront decores 
de rOrdre des Trois Toisons d'Or." ^ 

The special distinction of having the badge 
of the Legion of Honour affixed to its Eagle as 
a decoration to the regimental standard was in 
1812 granted to one corps, the celebrated 57th. 

* Colonel Lejeune was again called in to -design the decoration 
for the Order, and has recorded what Napoleon said to him. 
" * The Order of the Golden Fleece,' he said, ' is typical of 
victory ; my Eagles have triumphed over the Golden Fleeces 
of the King of Spain and the Emperors of Germany, so I mean 
to create for the French Empire an Imperial Order of the Tlrree 
Golden Fleeces. The sign of this order shall be my own Eagle 
with outspread wings, holding in each of its talons one of the 
ancient Golden Fleeces it has carried off ; whilst hanging from its 
beak it will proudly display the Fleece I now institute.' He 
then took a pen and roughly marked out the size I was to make 
my drawing. ... I made the drawings as desired, and he issued 
the order accordingly. The institution of the new Order was 
duly announced in the Moniteur ; but the terms of the treaty 
of peace compelled him to suppress a distinction the chief aim 
of which had been to humiliate the conquered countries of 
Spain and Austria." 



SOME CORPS DID NOT OBEY 1S7 

It was as a reward for magnificent intrepidity 
displayed under the eyes of Napoleon at the 
battle of Borodino. The 57th had at the same 
time a further and unique mark of Imperial 
regard awarded to it. Napoleon ordered that 
a representation of the badge of the Legion of 
Honour should be stamped on the uniform 
buttons of the regiment. No corps of the Grand 
Army, perhaps, had a finer fighting tradition 
than this splendid regiment — ^the same " Ter- 
rible 57me qui rien rCarrete,''^ of the Army of Italy ; 
which, too, as has been said, Napoleon singled 
out for a special word of encouragement on the 
morning of Austerlitz ; calling to them as he 
rode past, " You will remember to-day, Fifty- 
seventh, how I once named you ' Le Terrible ' ! '* 

But, with regard to the Regimental Eagles of 
1808, even for Napoleon it was one thing to 
decree the abolition of Battalion Eagles, and 
another to obtain compliance with the order 
that the surplus Eagles should be returned to 
the War Minister for laying up at the Invalides. 

A number of second and third battalions of 
regiments stationed at places out of the way of 
direct Imperial inspection — in garrisons beyond 
the frontiers, in subjugated countries, or in the 
remaining overseas possessions of France — con- 
tinued for some time to evade the order recalling 
their Eagles. No doubt, too, they were unwilling 
to part with standards some of which had led 
the corps under fire at Austerlitz and Jena. 



188 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

Napoleon had to repeat his order of recall 
twice : once during 1809 ; the second time in 
1811. That second order was the outcome of a 
discovery made by the Emperor himself. At an 
Imperial review of the troops of the Amsterdam 
and North Holland garrisons on October 12, 
1810, three of the regiments had the temerity 
to parade before the Emperor's eyes with four 
Eagles apiece — one to each battalion. Such 
flagrant disobedience could not be overlooked ; 
and then subsequent inquiries brought out the 
fact that elsewhere there were many Battalion 
Eagles which had similarly been retained against 
orders. An additional discovery was made at 
the same time, that the Fourth-Battalion Eagles 
had been supplied surreptitiously, through some 
official at the Ministry of War, entirely without 
Napoleon's knowledge. 

It made Napoleon excessively angry. He 
complained bitterly to Marshal Berthier at the 
way in which the department which had to do 
with the standards of the Army had been mis- 
managed. " La partie des drapeaux des regi- 
ments," he declared, " est aujourd'hui dans un 
grand chaos." To the Minister of War, General 
Clarke, Due de Feltre, Napoleon sent a stinging 
letter of rebuke. 

With the letter went the draft of yet another 
decree, to be communicated to every corps in 
the service. 

" I only give," wrote Napoleon now, " one 



NAPOLEON'S FINAL ORDER 189 

Eagle per regiment of infantry, one per 
regiment of cavalry, one per regiment of 
artillery, one per regiment of special gen- 
darmerie. None to the departmental com- 
panies or guards of honour. 

" No corps may possess an Eagle which 
has not been bestowed by my own hand. 

" All regiments, further, of whatever de- 
nomination, if they did not receive the Eagle 
they are authorised to possess from the 
hand of the Emperor in person, either 
directly on parade, or through a regimental 
deputation, must return it to the Ministry 
of War for the will of his Majesty to be 
declared as to that Eagle. 

" All other corps are to carry ' fanions,* 
ordinary flags. Infantry regiments reduced 
below 1,000 men in strength, and cavalry 
regiments of less than 500 men, cannot 
retain their Eagle, and must return it 
to the depot. They will be accorded a 
standard [drapeau] without the Eagle. 

" All the infantry regiments now in pos- 
session of an Eagle per battalion, and cavalry 
with one per squadron, are to send the 
extra-regulation Eagles at once to Paris, to 
to kept [deposees] at the Invalides until 
they can be placed in the * Temple of Glory ' 
[the Church of the Madeleine, then being 
rebuilt]." " Jusqu'a ce qu'elles puissent etre 
misees dans le Temple de la Gloire," was 
what Napoleon wrote. 

Three of the British trophy-Eagles now at 
Chelsea, it may be remarked in passing, bear the 



190 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

number " 82." They came into our hands in 
February 1809, at the surrender of Martinique 
to a conjoint British miHtary and naval expedi- 
tion. The 82nd was one of the regiments re- 
ferred to as out of the way of direct inspection ; 
in garrison across the Atlantic. It had not 
obeyed the order of 1808 to return its Second 
and Third Battalion Eagles to Paris — with the 
result that three Eagles at Chelsea represent the 
misfortune of this one regiment. 

" The First Battalion," ordered Napoleon in 
his decree of 1811, " is to carry the Eagle : the 
other battalions will have each a fanion, quite 
plain, as follows : 2nd Battalion, White ; 3rd, 
Red ; 4th, Blue. Where certain regiments may 
possess additional battalions, these are to have, 
the 5th a Green fanion, the 6th a Yellow fanion."^ 

In 1813, in Napoleon's conscript army levied 
to replace the host destroyed in Russia, the 
newly raised Line regiments, and " Provisional- 
Regiments," made up of the amalgamated 
depot battalions of various corps, had to earn 
their Eagles on the battlefield. " No newly 
raised regiment," ordered Napoleon, "is to 
receive an Eagle until after his Majesty has been 
satisfied with its service before the enemy." 

The flags issued in 1808, and after that, to go 

^ They were to be merely identifying tokens. " If by mis- 
fortune," Napoleon went so far as to say, " f anions should fall 
into the enemy's hands, it will be apparent from their plain 
appearance that their capture is a matter of no account." " Une 
affaire sans consequence " were Napoleon's words. 



THE ONLY NAMES ALLOWED 191 

with the Regimental Eagles, were much more 
elaborate than those of the Champ de Mars. 
They had white diamond-shaped centre panels, 
similar to those in the flags presented on the 
Field of Mars, but with Imperial crowns em- 
broidered in gold on the red and blue upper 
corners of the flag, and golden Eagles on the 
lower corners. Gold embroidered wreaths of 
laurel, encircling the Imperial monogram " N." 
divided off the crowns above from the Eagles 
below. A border of gold fringe round the entire 
flag, embroidered with bees, was another new 
enrichment. In these flags the regimental battle- 
honour inscriptions on the reverse side of the 
white centre space in the former flags appeared 
in a revised from. Only victories of importance 
since the institution of the Empire, and at which 
Napoleon had commanded in person, were ad- 
mitted. Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Fried- 
land, Eckmiihl, Essling, Wagram, constituted 
the full list from which selection was made. One 
regiment alone was allowed to record an earlier 
victory : — the Imperial Guard. They pre- 
served their " Marengo " honour. Inscriptions 
such as " Le 75e arrive et bat I'ennemi," " J'etais 
tranquille, le 32e etait la," and the others 
which had been allowed on the flags of the 
Field of Mars, recalling deeds of the Army of 
Italy, disappeared from the revised pattern of 
1808. A new inscription was specially author- 
ised for the flag of one regiment, in honour of a 
14 



192 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

feat of great distinction during the Wagram 
campaign. The 84th of the Line was permitted 
to inscribe " Un centre dix — Gratz, 1809 " — but 
that only lasted for three years ; the inscription 
was ordered to be taken off in 1811. 

The design of the flag introduced in 1808 held 
until 1814. A less elaborate design was adopted 
for the Eagle-standards of the "Hundred Days," 
two specimens of which are in this country — the 
Waterloo trophies at Chelsea. 

Attractive and handsome as the new flag was, 
the Army, as before, looked on it as but an 
appendage, as merely " I'ornement de I'Aigle." 
The Eagle at the head of the staff, by itself, was 
all that nine soldiers out of ten troubled about. 
Not a few regiments, indeed, when on service, 
removed the flags altogether from their Eagle- 
poles and displayed as their standard the Eagle 
only. Particularly was this the case in Spain, 
where many regiments were in the field continu- 
ously, in some instances, for over six years — 
from 1808 to 1814. Asked one day after the 
Peninsular War about the inscription and battle- 
honours on the flag of his regiment, an infantry 
chej de bataillon frankly confessed that he had 
" never set eyes on it ! " The silken flag, he 
explained, " had been removed from the Eagle- 
pole before he first joined as a lieutenant, and 
had always, as he understood, been kept at the 
depot of the corps in France, rolled up and 
locked away in the regimental chest. The 



WHEN NAPOLEON MET AN EAGLE 193 

Eagle on its bare pole was all he had ever 
seen." 

Said another officer : " We never spoke of the 
regiment's 'colours,' and never saw them. We 
spoke only of ' the Eagle.' " 

This may be added. Napoleon was scrupulously 
exact in showing respect to the Eagle of a regi- 
ment whenever he passed one ; whether on the 
line of march, or in bivouac, under a sentry, 
with the Eagle-Guard near at hand, resting 
horizontally on a support of piled muskets with 
bayonets fixed. If on horseback, Napoleon always 
uncovered and bowed low ; if on the line of 
march, he sometimes stopped his carriage in 
passing, and got out, saluted the Eagle, and said 
a few words about the regiment's battle record 
to the Eagle- Guard. 

Between the review on the Field of Mars in 
1804 and the overthrow on the plains of Leipsic 
in 1814 the number of regiments in the Grand 
Army increased continuously, requiring the 
presentation of many new Eagles. Forty-four 
were presented in the period to the infantry 
alone ; to the regiments of the Line bearing 
numbers from the 113th to 156th ; besides others 
to the regiments of the '^ Middle Guard " and 
" Young Guard," and to two additional regiments 
of Cuirassiers. In every case Napoleon, in 
accordance with the stipulation that he so in- 
sisted on, made the presentation in person, with 
his own hand. 



194 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

In not a few instances, indeed, the ceremony 
took place on campaign ; and for one of these 
exceptionally interesting occasions we have 
available the notes of an eye-witness. It was at 
the presentation of the Eagle of the 126th Regi- 
ment of the Line, in Germany, in 1813. 

Napoleon made his appearance in his cam- 
paigning uniform, the dark green undress of the 
Chasseurs of the Guard, and mounted as usual on 
a grey charger. His staff, all brilliant in full 
dress, attended him. Approaching the scene 
at a canter, they all slowed down to a walk as 
they neared where the regiment stood, with its 
battalions parading every available man, and 
drawn up to form three sides of a hollow square. 
The new Eagle, enveloped in the leather casing 
in which it had been brought from France, lay 
on a pile of drums on one flank of the First 
Battalion, and a little in advance. The fourth, 
or open, side of the square was for the Imperial 
staff, who drew up there, while the Emperor by 
himself rode into the middle of the square. As 
Napoleon reined up, the regimental drums beat 
the Appel, and the officers of the regiment 
stepped to the front, with swords at the carry, 
and formed in line before the Emperor. 

Marshal Berthier, Chief of the Head-quarter 
Staff, then rode across to where the Eagle lay. 
He dismounted to receive it at the hands of the 
First Porte-Aigle, the Eagle being uncased at 
the same time. Berthier saluted the Eagle ; 



AT A PRESENTATION IN THE FIELD 195 

then, holding it erect with both hands, the 
marshal bore it ceremoniously along in front of 
the row of officers, who saluted with lowered 
swords as the Eagle passed, the drums of the 
regiment now beating a long roll. Halting close 
in front of Napoleon, Berthier inclined the Eagle 
forward in salute, and the Emperor, on his side, 
uncovered and bowed in return. Then, drawing 
his glove from his left hand, Napoleon raised his 
hand and extended it towards the Eagle. He 
held the reins, according to his custom, in his 
right hand. Napoleon began his address to the 
corps in a deep, impressive tone : 

" Soldiers of the 126th Regiment of the Line, 
I entrust to you the Eagle of France ! It is to 
serve to you ever as your rallying-point. You 
swear to me never to abandon it, but with life ! 
You swear never to suffer an affront to it for the 
honour of France ! You swear ever to prefer 
death for it to dishonour ! You swear ! " The 
last words were pronounced with a peculiar 
stress, in a very solemn tone, with intense 
energy. 

Instantly the officers of the regiment replied. 
Holding their swords on high, with one voice 
they shouted : " We swear ! " 

The next moment the words were taken up 
and repeated enthusiastically by the men : 
*' We swear ! " 

Berthier, on that, formally handed the Eagle 
over to the colonel of the regiment, and the 



196 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 

Emperor, raising his hand to his hat in salute 
to the Eagle, turned to rejoin the Staff and 
ride off elsewhere. 

On the afternoon before the three days' battle 
of Leipsic opened, on October 15, 1813, Napoleon, 
on the Marchfeldt, in the very presence of the 
enemy, presented with these formalities new 
Eagles to three newly raised regiments. 



CHAPTER VII 

BEFORE THE ENEMY AT ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

Napoleon's regimental Eagles made their debut 
on the battlefield in the Wagram campaign of 
1809, when Austria challenged Napoleon to a 
second trial of strength in her premature attempt 
to achieve the liberation of Germany. The gal- 
lant deeds of the regiments that fought round 
the Eagles in that war are commemorated on the 
standards of the French Army to-day by the 
legend " Wagram, 1809," a name and date 
that stand as the comprehensive memento of a 
conflict that lasted four months, and included 
no fewer than ten fiercely fought battles. They 
are superabundant as a fact ; it would almost 
need a book by itself to tell the full story. It 
must suffice therefore to take here only these, 
picked out at random, as typical of the rest. 

This is the achievement that " Wagram, 1809," 
inscribed in golden letters on the silken tricolor 
standard of the present-day 65th of the Line, 
serves to recall. 

Napoleon's 65th was one of the regiments of 
Marshal Davout's corps at Ratisbon, where 
Davout had been stationed on the eve of the 

197 



198 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

outbreak of the war. He was hastily recalled 
on the Austrians opening hostilities and ad- 
vancing in greatly superior force. Davout fell 
back at once, leaving behind him the 65th to 
hold the very important bridge over the Danube 
at Ratisbon for forty-eight hours, until the 
bulk of his corps had gained a sufficient start 
on their way. 

The 65th had not long to wait for the enemy. 
Within twelve hours of the marshal's retirement 
the Austrians swooped down on Ratisbon to 
seize the bridge. Two of their army corps led 
the advance. One took possession of the city, 
sending troops forward to secure the bridge. 
Part of the other crossed the Danube in the 
neighbourhood of the city in boats, in order to 
cut off and capture the French troops left behind. 
It was expected that in the presence of so over- 
powering an enemy the single French regiment 
holding the bridge would not venture to make 
a serious defence. The Austrians did not know 
the 65th. 

To oppose the first comers three battalions of 
the 65th barricaded and loopholed the houses 
nearest the bridge on that side. The remaining 
battalion held a fortified outwork, or bridge- 
head, across the river. 

For a whole day the battalions in the city 
held the Austrians at bay, resisting desperately 
in the streets and from house to house. Four 
hundred Austrian prisoners, together with an 



HOW WERE THEY TO SAVE THE EAGLE ? 199 

Austrian regimental standard and three other 
flags, testified to the way they did their duty. 
The battalion holding the bridge-head on the 
farther side of the river made meanwhile a no 
less stubborn resistance and kept the enemy off 
until nightfall. Then, however, it was found 
that their ammunition was exhausted. The 
three battalions fighting the city were by that 
time in a no less desperate plight. They on 
their side had been forced back to their last 
defences among the houses immediately surround- 
ing the approach to the bridge. Still, though, 
they kept up a fierce resistance, at the last using 
cartridges taken from the cartouche-boxes of the 
Austrian prisoners and their own dead and 
wounded comrades. They held out until further 
defence of the bridge was impossible, until 
indeed further resistance at all was hopeless. 

But the regimental Eagle ? What was to 
become of that ? The Eagle of the 65th must 
at all cost be kept from being surrendered into 
an enemy's hands. What was to be done ? At 
first it was suggested that an officer, known to 
be a good swimmer, should try to swim down 
the river with it in the dark until he could land 
safely on the farther bank, after which he should 
do his best to make his way to wherever Napoleon 
might be, there to render personally into his 
hands the sacred Eagle. But the other surviving 
officers were loth to part with their treasured 
standard in that way, The risk of a man getting 



200 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

through the Austrians who were swarming on 
the other side of the Danube was considered too 
great. It was then suggested to sink it in the 
Danube, noting the spot, so as to be able to 
fish it up again on some future day. Colonel 
Coutard, in command of the 65th, however, was 
against that. They might never be able, or have 
time, to find it at the bottom of a deep and 
swiftly flowing river like the Danube. He pro- 
posed to conceal the Eagle in the ground, burying 
it in some secret place. There it might without 
difficulty be recovered later on and brought back 
to France. The colonel's proposal was assented 
to, and then a further suggestion was made. 
Their Eagle should be given a fitting shroud by 
wrapping round it the captured Austrian flags 
they had taken that afternoon. That would 
preserve the trophies also for future days when 
the fortune of war again favoured the regiment. 
The idea was eagerly taken up, and the Eagle 
was buried in a cellar, wrapped up in the Austrian 
flags. 

After that, at the very last, just as the Aus- 
trians were about to launch another attack it 
was impossible to withstand. Colonel Coutard 
had the chamade beaten, and the 65th surrendered. 
They were granted, as they well deserved, the 
honours of war, and were for the time being 
confined under guard in the city. Their cap- 
tivity, however, was not for long. Their re- 
lease came about in a very few days on the 



WRAPPED UP IN CAPTURED FLAGS 201 

Austrian troops hurriedly evacuating Ratisbon 
before Napoleon's triumphant advance.^ The 
Eagle was now dug up, and Colonel Coutard, 
with a deputation from the regiment, waited on 
Napoleon on his arrival, to present the Eagle 
before him, still wrapped up in the three cap- 
tured Austrian flags. 

In recognition of the endurance that the 65th 
had shown, the colonel was created a Baron of 
the Empire ; crosses of the Legion of Honour 
were distributed broadcast among all ranks ; 
forty soldiers who had shown exceptional gal- 
lantry in the fighting were, as a reward, specially 
transferred to the Old Guard. 

Such is the fine story that the battle-honour 
"Wagram, 1809," lettered in gold on the regi- 
mental tricolor of the present-day 65th of the 
Line in the French Army commemorates, and 

* It was dtiring the battle at Ratisbon that Napoleon, accord- 
ing to the story, was wounded for the only time in his life, 
and had to dismount, and, in the sight of the dismayed soldiers, 
have his wotmd dressed by a surgeon, the news causing con- 
sternation through the ranks of the whole army far and wide. 
Indeed, only this year there was placed in the Army Museum at the 
Invalides, as an historic relic of the highest interest, "the fragment 
of a shell that struck Napoleon at Ratisbon on the 23rd of April, 
1809, and gave him the only wound he ever received in battle." 
The truth is revealed in M. Combes' journal, which, after telling 
how Napoleon carefully concealed everything which might detract 
from his reputation among his soldiers for invulnerability, enu- 
merates his wounds in detail. After his death half a dozen scars 
were found on his body. There was the mark of a wound on his 
head, a hole above his left knee, either from a bayonet or a lance, 
the mark of the injiiry received at Ratisbon, another on one 
hand, and on the body the scars of sword cuts and slashes. 



i202 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

care is taken that every young soldier on joining 
is made acquainted with it. 

Equally fine as an exploit, and yet more re- 
nowned for the exceptional honour that Napo- 
leon paid to the Eagle of the regiment, was the 
splendid heroism that the 84th of the Line 
displayed at Gratz in Styria. That episode of 
the campaign, indeed, is commemorated by a 
double battle-honour on the flag of the 84th of 
the modern French Army. Both " Wagram, 
1809," and " Un contre dix— Gratz, 1809" 
are inscribed in golden letters on its tricolor. 
Napoleon himself, as has been said, bestowed 
the honour of the unique inscription on the 
regimental flag. He had also the words *' Un 
contre dix " incised on the square tablet sup- 
porting the Eagle itself. Here is the story of 
the exploit as related by one of Napoleon's 
staff officers in the campaign. Colonel Lejeune: 

" Amongst all these battles and victories 
there was one action so remarkable and so bril- 
liant that I feel impelled to describe it here from 
the accounts of eye-witnesses. During the 
taking of Gratz by General Broussier, and when 
the struggle was at its fiercest, Colonel Gambin 
of the 84th Regiment was ordered, with two of 
his battalions, to attack the suburb of St. 
Leonard, where he made from four to five 
hundred prisoners. This vigorous assault led 
General Guilay on the enemy's side to imagine 
be had to deal with a whole army, and he hurried 



Kept off With the bayonet 203 

to the aid of the suburb with considerable forces. 
Gambin did not hesitate to attack them, and he 
took from them the cemetery of the Graben 
suburb, but was in his turn invested by the 
Austrian battalions, and found it impossible to 
rejoin the main body of the French. He ac- 
cepted the situation, spent the whole of the 
night in fortifying the cemetery and the adjoin- 
ing houses, and, his ammunition being exhausted, 
he actually kept at bay some 10,000 assailants 
with the bayonet alone, even making several 
sorties to carry off the cartouches on the dead 
bodies with which his attacks had strewn the 
ground near the cemetery. General Guilay now 
directed the fire of all his guns and five fresh 
battalions on this handful of brave men, who had 
already for nineteen hours withstood a whole 
army. General Broussier was at last able to 
send Colonel Nagle of the 92nd, with two bat- 
talions, to the aid of the 84th. The enemy 
vainly endeavoured to prevent the two regi- 
ments from meeting. Colonel Nagle overthrew 
every obstacle, got into the cemetery, and after 
embracing each other the two officers, with their 
united forces, flung themselves upon the Aus- 
trians, took 500 of them prisoners, with two flags, 
and carried the suburb of Graben by assault, 
finding no less than 1,200 Austrian corpses in 
the streets. When the Emperor heard of this 
feat of arms, he was anxious to confer the greatest 
distinction he could on the 84th Regiment, and 



204 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

ordered that its banner should henceforth bear 
in letters of gold the proud inscription, ' One 
against ten.' " 

Seldom indeed did the soldiers of Napoleon 
encounter a more determined enemy than the 
Austrians proved themselves in the war of 1809. 
At Aspern, the battle on the Danube near Vienna, 
where Napoleon experienced his first defeat on 
the Continent, more than one Eagle came within 
an ace of being taken. The Eagle of the 9th of 
the Line, for instance, to save it from what ap- 
peared to be imminent capture, was actually 
buried on the battlefield in the middle of the 
fighting. " Our colonel," wrote one of the men 
of the 9th, " took the Eagle of the regiment, 
pulled it from its staff, and, after digging a hole 
in the ground with a pioneer's tool, buried and 
concealed there our rallying signal to prevent 
it from falling into the enemy's hands." It was, 
though, after all, an unnecessary precaution. 
The hard-pressed 9th were rescued at the last 
moment, whereupon the Eagle made its re- 
appearance. 

Three other Eagles, less fortunate, are now in 
the Austrian Army Museum at Vienna ; those 
of the 35th of the Line and of the 95th and 106th. 
The Eagle of the 35th was taken on the Italian 
frontier near Lake Garda, in a surprise attack 
at daybreak on the camp of the Viceroy, Eugene 
Beauharnais, by the troops of the Archduke 
John. The other two fell into Austrian hands 



VICTIMS OF A PANIC IN THE DARK 205 

on the night of the opening attack at Wagram, 
victims of a panic that suddenly seized one of 
the French columns. It had led the attack on 
the centre of the Austrian position with brilliant 
success. 

Two thousand prisoners and five standards 
had been taken, and the French were advancing 
exultantly, when the Austrians counter-attacked 
with fresh troops, headed by the Archduke 
Charles in person. The French resisted stub- 
bornly, and at first successfully. They held 
their own until, in the midst of furious hand-to- 
hand fighting, they were suddenly charged by 
cavalry. It was late evening, and in the gather- 
ing dusk a sudden panic seized a regiment on 
the flank. The panic spread instantly to the 
whole of the attacking column. All order was 
lost forthwith. The soldiers gave way in con- 
fusion, broke up, and went racing back headlong, 
a mob of fugitives, down the steep ascent that a 
few minutes before they had so gallantly won. 
As they went back in a tumultuous rush, fresh 
French troops, coming up to their support, " in 
the darkness mistook the retreating host for 
enemies and fired upon it ; they, in their turn, 
were overthrown by the torrent of fugitives." 
The Austrian prisoners taken in the advance 
escaped, the captured Austrian standards were 
recaptured, and two Eagles disappeared in the 
dark amid the turmoil. Those are the two now 
at Vienna. 



206 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

Fortunately for Napoleon the Austrian leaders 
did not realise the smashing nature of the blow 
they had dealt. The fate of Napoleon's Empire 
otherwise might have been decided on that 
night. Unaware that the panic had " spread an 
indescribable alarm through the French centre 
as far as the tent of the Emperor, they stopped 
the advance, sounded the recall, and fell back to 
their original positions." 

Of the Eagle-bearers of four regiments at 
Aspern, the 2nd, 16th, 37th, and 67th of the 
Line, not one came through the day alive, but the 
Eagles were saved. They were the four regiments 
that took the village of Aspern and held it 
all day and till after dark — 12,000 men against 
80,000 enemies. The village was the all-im- 
portant key of the battlefield. Its defence was 
of supreme moment, for only part of Napoleon's 
army had been able to get across the Danube 
as yet, the main bridge of boats having been 
broken down and swept away. 

They had seized Aspern at the outset, but had 
been forced to fall back before an Austrian 
counter-attack, returning after that to recapture 
it, and hold it until the end. 

Marshal Massena led the onset that retook the 
village. " The Austrians," describes a French 
officer, " had entered Aspern, and it was abso- 
lutely necessary to dislodge them. Mass^naJ| 
therefore, who had had all his horses killed, 
marched on foot with drawn sword at the head 



AT BAY IN THE BURNING VILLAGE 207 

of the Grenadiers of the Molitor division, forced 
his way into the village, crowded as it was with 
Austrians, drove them out, and pursued them 
for some twelve or fourteen yards beyond the 
houses. But here the French troops found 
themselves face to face with the strong force 
under Hiller, Bellegarde, and Hohenzollern, 
advancing rapidly in their direction. It was 
hopeless for the division to attempt to engage 
such superior numbers in the open plain, so Mas- 
s^na recalled the pursuers, and ordered them to 
hold Aspern. The enemy, ashamed apparently 
of this first defeat, returned to the charge with 
80,000 men and more than a hundred pieces 
of cannon, which were soon pointed on the 
village." 

It was impossible to stop the onrush of the 
Austrians. In spite of every effort of Mass^na, 
who with his artillery " opened fire upon the 
densely packed masses of men, every shot work- 
ing terrible havoc amongst them," they swarmed 
forward to the outskirts of the village. A 
life-and-death struggle in defence began. " In 
a very few minutes the village was completely 
surrounded by troops ; and hidden from view 
in the dense clouds of smoke from the can- 
non, the musketry, and the fires which at 
once broke out, the combatants, almost suffo- 
cated by the smoke, crossed bayonets without 
being able to see each other ; but neither 
side gave way a step, and for more than an 
15 



208 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

hour the terrible attack and desperate defence 
went on amongst the ruins of the burning 
houses." 

It was during the Austrian opening attack on 
the outskirts of Aspern that at one point a 
French regiment — the number of the regiment is 
not given in any account — was forced apart from 
the rest, and driven back in disorder beyond the 
village. Its colonel was killed, and, though the 
Eagle was kept from falling into the enemy's 
hands, the regiment fell back in confusion. Napo- 
leon witnessed the check and galloped to inter- 
cept the troops as they were retreating. Riding 
into the midst of the fugitives, he personally ral- 
lied them, and then called angrily for the colonel. 
There was no answer from any one, and in high 
anger Napoleon again called for the colonel. 
Then somebody made the reply that the colonel 
was dead. *' I know that ! " answered Napoleon 
sharply. " I asked where he was ! " "We left him 
in the village." " What ! you left your colonel's 
body in the hands of the enemy ? Go back 
instantly, find it, and remember that a good 
regiment should always be able to produce both 
its Colonel and its Eagle ! " Napoleon's stinging 
rebuke did its work. The men at once re-formed 
and turned back. Charging forward with a rush, 
they forced their way through to where the 
colonel had fallen and recovered the body. 
Then they joined in with the other defenders 
at the village, and did their duty to the end. 



MARSHAL MASSENA UNDER FIRE 209 

The colonel's body was brought back and laid 
before Napoleon next morning. 

The fearful contest in Aspern went on until 
four in the afternoon, by which time the Aus- 
trians had succeeded in taking half the village. 
They could not, however, get beyond that. 
" Massena still held the church and cemetery, 
and was struggling to regain what he had lost. 
Five times in less than three hours he took and 
retook the cemetery, the church, and the village, 
without being able to call to his aid the Legrand 
division, which he was obliged to hold in reserve 
to cover Aspern on the right and keep the enemy 
from getting in on that side. Throughout this 
awful struggle Massena stood beneath the great 
elms on the green opposite the church, calmly 
indifferent to the fall of the branches brought 
down upon his head by the showers of grape- 
shot and bullets, keenly alive to all that was 
going on, his look and voice, stern as the quos 
ego of Virgil's angry Neptune, inspiring all who 
surrounded him with irresistible strength." 

Even when the sun went down " the struggle 
was far from being over, and the awful battle 
was still raging in the streets and behind the 
walls of the village of Aspern. The enemy, 
irritated at the stubborn resistance of so small a 
body of troops, redoubled their efforts to dis- 
lodge them before nightfall, and went on fighting 
by the light of the conflagrations alone. The 
history of our wars relates no more thrilling inci- 



210 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

dent than this long and obstinate struggle, in 
which our troops, disheartened by the ever-fresh 
difficulties with which they had to contend, 
worn out by fatigue, and horrified by the carnage 
round them, were kept at their posts by the 
example and exhortations of Massena and his 
officers alone. General Molitor had lost some 
half of his men, and the enemy were hurrying up 
from every side. The struggle was maintained 
under these terrible conditions until eleven 
o'clock, when we remained masters of Aspern 
and of the whole line between it and Essling." 
Five regiments of the French Army of to-day 
commemorate a splendid Eagle-incident in the 
name " Wagram, 1809, " on their colours ; the 
final charge of Macdonald's column which saved 
and decided the battle for Napoleon, besides 
gaining a marshal's baton for the Scottish officer 
who achieved the feat. That was on the final 
battlefield of Wagram itself, the outcome of which 
tremendous encounter settled the fate of the war. 
It was the culminating event of the battle. The 
crisis was at hand for both armies when the order 
was given to Macdonald to go forward. On the 
Austrian side the powerful and fresh corps of the 
Archduke John was rapidly nearing the scene, 
and the fortune of the day yet wavered in the 
balance. Napoleon, as his last hope and final 
effort to break the stubborn Austrian array of 
the Archduke Charles' host which still confronted 
him, defiant still after ten hours of charges and 



MACDONALD'S COLUMN ADVANCES 



211 



counter-charges, holding out tenaciously in a 
strong position, massed his reserves and sent 
them at the centre of the Austrians, to press for- 
ward in a vast column of closely formed battalions. 
They went at the enemy with all the daring of 
a forlorn hope. 



7 Battalions 
in column. 



8 Battalions € 
deployed In line. 



. 6 Battalions 
in column. 



Cuirassiers and Heavy Cavalry 
J L 




" Moving steadily forward through the wreck 
of guns, the dead, and the dying, this undaunted 
column, preceded by its terrific battery inces- 
santly firing, pushed on half a league beyond 
the front at other points of the enemy's line. 
In proportion as it advanced, however, it be- 
came enveloped in fire ; the guns were gradu- 
ally dismounted or silenced, and the infantry 
emerged through their wreck to the front. The 
Austrians drew off their front line upon their 



212 ASPERN AND WAGRAM 

second, and both, falling back, formed a sort 
of wall on each side of the French column, from 
whence issued a dreadful fire of grape and 
musketry on either flank of the assailants. Still 
Macdonald pushed on with unconquerable reso- 
lution : in the midst of a frightful storm of 
bullets his ranks were unshaken ; the destiny 
of Europe was in his hands, and he was worthy 
of the mission. The loss he experienced, how- 
ever, was enormous ; at every step huge chasms 
were made in his ranks, whole files were 
struck down by cannon-shot, and at length his 
eight dense battalions were reduced to 1,500 
men. Isolated in the midst of enemies, this 
band of heroes was compelled to halt. The 
Empire rocked to its foundations : it was the 
rout of a similar body of the Guard at Waterloo 
that hurled Napoleon to the rock of St. Helena." 
The five regiments which formed the spear- 
point of the attack had paraded that morning 
6,000 strong. They numbered now, the sur- 
vivors, less than 300. They were at the extreme 
point of the advance, but were held fast and 
unable to go farther. The enemy were on every 
side of them, for in the last moments they had 
pressed on beyond touch of the troops that were 
following next. The Austrians saw their chance 
to charge them and annihilate them before the 
approach of French supports to the main column 
could get near. But General Broussier, the 
Brigadier in command of the leading troops, 



THE BATTLE WON AT LAST 213 

knew his work and his men. As they halted 
he rapidly rallied the fragments of the nearest 
regiments and formed them in a single square. 
They drew up under the feu d'enfer of cannon 
and musketry, three deep in front, with, in the 
centre, held up on high, the five Eagles of 
the regiments ; so as not to weaken the front, 
the firing line, "the Eagles were held up only 
by men who had been wounded." Broussier 
marked the massing of the Eagles in the midst ; 
and, as the firing round them for one moment 
seemed to lull, raising his voice, he called out 
for all to hear : " Soldiers, swear to die here 
to the last man round your Eagles ! " " Jurez 
moi, soldats, de mourir tous, jusqu'au dernier, 
autour de vos Aigles ! " were the Brigadier's 
words. But there was fortunately no need for 
all to die. At that moment reinforcing troops 
came up, with the Young Guard at their head. 
The column, on that, moved forward again with 
a steady front, " and the Archduke, despairing 
now of maintaining his position, when assailed 
at the crisis of the day by such a formidable 
accession of force in the now broken part of his 
line, gave directions for a general retreat." 
The Eagles had done their part and the battle 
of Wagram was won, 



CHAPTER VIII 

" THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 
IN LONDON 

There are thirteen of Napoleon's Eagles in 
England, among the trophies of the British Army 
at Chelsea Royal Hospital ; or, to speak strictly, 
twelve Eagles and a " dummy " Eagle, the later 
reproduction of a very famous trophy, gone 
now, unfortunately, to the melting-pot of a 
thieves' kitchen. It is with the dummy Eagle, 
as it may be called for short, without disrespect 
to its gallant custodians, and five of the twelve 
Eagles at Chelsea, that we are for the im- 
mediate moment concerned. That represents 
the first of Napoleon's trophies won by British 
soldiers in hand-to-hand fight — the once cele- 
brated "Eagle with the Golden Wreath." 

The story opens on Saturday morning, May 18, 
1811, a day that was a great occasion for Lon- 
doners. For the first time, on that Saturday, 
trophies taken from Napoleon were publicly 
displayed in the British Capital, and no pains 
were spared to make the most of the event. 
An elaborate and dramatic ceremonial was 
ordained for the occasion by the authorities 

^14 



WHAT LONDON HAD SEEN BEFORE 215 

at the instance of the Prince Regent. It was 
like nothing else of the kind ever witnessed or 
heard of in England before. 

On many another day in bygone times London 
had been the scene of stately martial pageants 
in which the victor's spoils from many battle- 
fields were borne in triumph, amid blare of 
trumpets and clash of drums, to be deposited 
with due ceremony in their allotted resting- 
places. So had it been when the Marlborough 
trophies from Blenheim and Ramillies, the 
captured flags from Dettingen, Louisburg, and 
Minden, were borne along the crowded streets, 
preceded by bands playing triumphant music 
and accompanied by armed escorts of Foot and 
Horse. Another Saturday, seventeen years be- 
fore, May 17, 1794, had been the last occasion 
of trophy-flags being displayed in London, 
when the captured French Republican standards 
of the garrison of Martinique were publicly 
carried through the streets by Life Guards and 
Grenadiers, with the band of the First Guards 
leading the way and the Tower guns booming 
out an artillery feu de joie, from St. James's 
Palace to St. Paul's, to be received at the great 
west doors of the Cathedral by the Dean and 
Chapter, and laid up "as a lasting memorial 
of the success of his Majesty's Arms." Some 
of the flags then displayed hang in the Hall of 
Chelsea Hospital to-day. 

So, too, had it been in London in vet earlier 



216 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

times, in the far off, unhappy days of Civil War 
in England, when the citizens of those periods, 
in turn, saw the spoils of Bosworth, and of Mars- 
ton Moor and Naseby, of Worcester, Preston, 
and Dunbar, paraded through their midst, 
escorted by mail-clad men-at-arms, on the way 
to be hung up exultingly in St. Paul's Cathedral 
or in Westminster Hall. With his own Royal 
banners from Marston Moor and Naseby drooping 
down overhead from the roof of Westminster 
Hall, Charles the First faced his judges and heard 
his fate. But never before in London had so 
elaborately designed a ceremony attended the 
display of trophies taken from any enemy, as 
that planned for the Royal Depositum, as it 
was officially styled, of the first of the captured 
Eagles of Napoleon to be received in England. 
There was to be a special display of trophies 
the London newspapers announced some days 
beforehand. The newspapers had not spared 
themselves in working up public interest. At 
the outset they had told how, on the night of 
March 24, Captain Hope, First A.D.C. to 
General Graham, had arrived in London with 
the Barrosa despatches and a " French Eagle 
with a wreath of gold," which, it was stated, " the 
general trusted his aide de camp might be per- 
mitted to lay at his Majesty's feet." Then 
Londoners were informed that the Barrosa 
Eagle was a trophy of unusual importance, and 
was being kept at the War Office, to be presented 



A GRAND MARTIAL CEREMONY 217 

to the Prince Regent at the next levee. It was 
announced a week later that his Royal High- 
ness had been so desirous of seeing it at once, 
that the War Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, 
instead of waiting five weeks for the levee, had 
already presented it to the Prince at Carlton 
House. On that came the official notification 
that "the Eagle with the Golden Wreath," 
as the trophy was everywhere styled, to- 
gether with a number of other French trophies, 
which had been previously received and had 
been some time stored away at the War Office 
pending instructions as to their disposal, would 
be deposited in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 
(now the Museum of the Royal United Service 
Institution). " The Royal Depositum ceremony 
will be very grand, and the martial music appro- 
priate to the occasion, and as the orders have 
been issued by direction of his Royal Highness 
the Prince Regent, the Chapel will be thronged 
with nobility." So one journal notified ; an- 
other remarking that " in addition to the great 
religious and military ceremony, an anthem is 
to be performed after the manner of the Te 
Deum." 

Thus popular interest was aroused and kept 
alive in advance, and the selected Saturday 
morning proving fine and pleasant, with the 
prospect of a genial and sunny forenoon, Lon- 
doners turned out in large numbers to see the 
show. 



218 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

To the Brigade of Guards it fell to carry out 
the ceremony of the military reception of the 
Eagles. 

The " Parade in St. James's Park," which we 
know now as the Horse Guards Parade, was the 
appointed place for the display, and as the clock 
struck nine the preliminaries opened with the 
arrival of a large body of Guards' recruits who 
were to keep the ground. From quite an early 
hour a crowd had been gathering there and 
along the side of the Park. Soon afterwards 
the first of the troops designated to attend the 
ceremony began to arrive. These were several 
companies of the First Guards and Coldstreamers 
" in undress, with side arms." They formed 
line along either side of the parade-ground ; on 
one side " extending from the corner of the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer's garden to the 
Egyptian gun " ; on the opposite side, " from the 
Admiralty towards the Park." To right and 
left of the archway under the Horse Guards 
leading to Whitehall were drawn up the '* re- 
cruiting parties stationed in the Home District." 

At a quarter to ten came on the scene the 
first of the actors in the day's proceedings, the 
" King's Guard " of the day, " in their best 
uniforms, and with sprigs of oak and laurel in 
their hats." Marching up, headed by the com- 
bined bands of the First Guards and the Cold- 
streamers, with the regimental colour of the First 
Guards, they formed on the right, along the open 



GETTING READY FOR THE PRINCES 219 

side of the square, facing towards the Horse 
Guards. Following them, a few moments later, 
came the picked detachment appointed as the 
*' trophy-escort," furnished jointly by the 
grenadier companies of the First Guards and 
the Coldstreamers. All were in review-order full 
dress, " wearing long white gaiters, with oak and 
laurel leaves in their hats." A captain of the 
First Guards was in command ; and the de- 
tachment was made up of two subalterns, four 
sergeants, and ninety-six rank and file. They 
took post on the left of the King's Guard. As 
the trophy- escort halted, up came another de- 
tachment of Guards, a hundred strong, with 
the Life Guards ; marching across the square 
and through the Horse Guards archway to line 
the way thence to the doors of the Chapel Royal. 
Towards ten o'clock privileged spectators 
were admitted within the square, " to stand at 
an appointed spot " : several veteran generals, 
" in their best uniforms and powdered," as a 
newspaper reporter remarks ; Lord Liverpool 
the War Minister ; the Earl Marshal ; the 
Speaker ; the Spanish and Portuguese Ambas- 
sadors, both gorgeously attired ; and " a number 
of beautiful and elegant ladies of distinction." 
The Horse Guards clock struck ten, and as the 
last clanging stroke died away *' the authori- 
ties " came clattering on to the ground on horse- 
back : Sir David Dundas, Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army and Governor of Chelsea Hospital, 



220 "THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH" 

at the head of a number of other plunied and 
cocked-hatted generals in full uniform, together 
with the Head-quarters Staff at the Horse 
Guards. Prominent in the glittering array of 
gold-laced red coats, " mounted on a cream- 
coloured Arab," was General Sir John Doyle, 
Colonel of the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers ; the 
regiment whose prowess at Barrosa had won 
the great trophy of the day — " the Eagle with 
the Golden Wreath." 

With Royal punctuality, as the clock chimed 
the half -hour, amid cheers from the crowd and 
the spectators filling the windows of the Horse 
Guards and Admiralty and other Government 
offices overlooking the ground, came riding up 
the three Princes who were to preside at the 
ceremony — the Dukes of York, Cambridge, and 
Gloucester. 

The display began forthwith. 

Preceded by the two Guards' bands playing 
the " Grenadiers' March," the trophy-escort of 
grenadiers crossed the Parade at a slow step, 
and marched in four divisions, or '' platoons," 
to the old Tilt Yard orderly-room under the 
Horse Guards. There the trophies had been 
taken beforehand to be in readiness for the cere- 
mony. The grenadiers halted before the doors, 
and the trophies, twelve in number, were brought 
out by Lifeguardsmen from the Tilt Yard Guard 
and committed to the charge of twelve picked 
sergeants — six of the First Guards, six of the Cold- 



A 



THE CAPTURED EAGLES TAKE POST 221 

streamers — selected to bear them to the Chapel 
Royal. 

The trophy-bearers carrying the Eagles then 
took post according to the date of the capture 
of each trophy ; the earliest taken of the Eagles 
leading. In advance of all, immediately after 
the band, marched the three officers with swords 
drawn ; the captain and the two subalterns. 
Then, with their flanking grenadiers as escort, 
a file to each trophy, came, one after the other, 
three Battalion Eagles of Napoleon's 82nd of 
the Line, surrendered at the capitulation of Mar- 
tinique in 1809. Immediately in rear marched 
No. 1 platoon of grenadiers ; in the interval 
between the first trophy-group and the second. 
That consisted of the Regimental Eagle of the 
French 26th of the Line, surrendered at Mar- 
tinique at the same time as the Eagles of the 
82nd, and then that of the 66th of the Line, sur- 
rendered at the capitulation of Guadaloupe in 
1810, with, just behind them, the all-important 
trophy of the day, the first Napoleonic Eagle 
captured — or, at any rate, taken possession of — 
by British soldiers on the battlefield : " the 
Eagle with the Golden Wreath"— that Eagle of 
Napoleon's 8th Regiment of the Line, won in 
hand-to-hand fight by the 87th Royal Irish 
Fusiliers at Barrosa. 

Five of the Eagles had their silken tricolor 
flags still attached to the poles. The Barrosa 
Eagle had none : it showed simply a bare pole 



2*22 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

topped by the wreathed Eagle. The wreath, 
according to a newspaper reporter present, was 
" an honour conferred on the regiment for fine 
conduct at the battle of Talavera, where they 
were opposed to the 87th; and, by a singular 
coincidence of circumstances, these regiments 
met in conflict at Barrosa and recognised each 
other." As we shall see, the statement was a 
freak of journalistic imagination, without a scrap 
of fact behind the story, although, strangely, the 
legend holds to this day and reappears periodically 
in print. Adds the reporter, as to the appearance 
of the Eagle, recording this time what he actu- 
ally saw : " The Eagle is fixed on a square 
pedestal, and standing erect on one foot ; the 
other raised as if grasping something ; its wings 
expanded. It is about the size of a small pigeon, 
and appears to be made of bronze, or of some 
composition like pinchbeck, gold-gilt." The 
" something " which the talons of the Eagle ap- 
peared to be grasping was the " thunderbolt," 
which was missing, having been either knocked 
out of its place in the scuffle on the battlefield, 
or stolen later by somebody for a relic. The 
wreath was really of gold. A couple of its leaves 
picked up on the field after the battle and given 
to Major Hugh Gough, the gallant commander 
of the 87th at Barrosa, are now in possession of 
one of that officer's descendants. 

The second grenadier platoon divided the 
Eagles from the first three of the flag-trophies, 



THE TROPHY FLAGS PARADED 22a 

borne in file, one by one, in the same way as the 
Eagles. The first in date of capture led ; a 
French Republican standard taken in fight at 
Sir Ralph Abercombie's victory at Alexandria, 
ten years before, and kept ever since at the War 
Office : " the Invincible's standard." " As it 
is falsely called," adds the reporter ; right for 
once. " So tattered is it," he continues, " that 
the mottoes are not legible ; a bugle in the 
centre was the only figure we could distinguish." 
Two flags taken by Wellington's men in the 
Peninsula accompanied the Alexandria flag : 
" a Fort Standard," as it is described, and the 
battalion colour, or " f anion," of the Second 
Battalion of Napoleon's 5th of the Line.^ 

^ As to this last trophy, it was unfortunate from our point of 
view — since Fate willed that the 5th of the Line should lose its 
coloTirs to an enemy — that one of the original Battalion Eagles 
of the corps had previously, in accordance with Napoleon's order 
of 1808, been returned to Paris. The half -winged Eagle of the 
5th would have made a notable trophy for Chelsea Hospital. 
While heading an attack on an Austrian field-work in Mass6na's 
battle at Caldiero on the Venetian frontier in November 1806, 
the Eagle was smashed from its staff by a grape-shot and dashed 
violently to the ground, with one wing shattered. At the same 
time the battalion recoiled before the terrific fire with which its 
charge was met. The Eagle saved the honour of the corps. 
Picking its battered remains up and waving it at arm's-length 
above his head, with a shout of " Come on, comrades ! follow the 
Eagle," one of the officers rushed with it through the melee to 
the front and led the forlorn-hope onset that stormed the post. 
After that, the Eagle, lashed to the stump of its broken pole, 
went through the battle to the end, doing its part in rallying the 
battalion round it, to keep at bay greatly superior numbers of 
the enemy until relief arrived. There had been almost a mutiny 
in the 5th in 1808 when they were ordered to retvirn their battle- 
scarred ensign to the Invalides, but the order was obeyed. Other- 
wise the half-winged Eagle would have been at Chelsea now. 
16 



224 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

In rear of the colour of the 5th marched the 
third grenadier platoon, and the last three 
trophies sent to England by Wellington. Two 
were a pair of tattered German standards, the 
flags of the two battalions of a Prussian regiment 
in Napoleon's service, composed of unfortunate 
soldiers levied compulsorily during the French 
occupation of their country, and tramped off to 
Spain to meet their fate under British bullets. 
Each flag bore the legend " L'Empereur des 
rran9ais au Regiment Prussien " on one side, 
and " Valeur et Discipline " on the other, and 
was mounted on a staff with a steel pike-head 
instead of an Eagle. They were silken flags of the 
ordinary Napoleonic pattern. The third flag 
of the group was that of a " provisional regi- 
ment " ; also with a steel pike-head to its staff. 

From the Tilt Yard orderly-room the trophies 
and their escort-guard set off, as before, in slow 
time, the bands playing " God save the King ! " 
The sergeants, carrying the Eagles and Flags 
between the files of grenadiers, marched in the 
intervals between the four divisions " in double 
open-order with arms advanced." Right round 
the square they now passed, close along the lines 
of the troops drawn up, " the immense multitude 
rending the air with huzzas." In front of the First 
Guards, in front of the recruiting parties, in front 
of the long line of Coldstreamers, along each of 
the three sides of the square, paced the proces- 
sion with martial pomp to the stately music 




PROSTRATED IN THE DUST 225 

of the two bands as they led the way. Then it 
proceeded along the fourth side of the square 
until it came face to face with the King's Guard, 
all standing with ordered arms, not at the 
present. 

There was a brief pause in front of the Colour 
of the King's Guard. 

That was the supreme moment of the display. 
Now took place the formal act of obeisance to 
the victors ; the formal act of abasement and 
humiliation for the vanquished. Amid re- 
doubled cheering from all sides, the Eagles and 
the other flags were, one and all, formally dipped 
and prostrated. " The captured standards 
saluted and were lowered to the ground in token 
of submission." 

The procession turned away in front of the 
King's Guard and led round in front of the three 
Royal Dukes, seated on their chargers, a little 
in advance of the Commander-in-Chief and 
Horse Guards Staff, at the centre of the parade- 
ground. Again, as they now passed before the 
Royal trio, the hapless Eagles of Napoleon and 
the other French flags in turn were one by one 
made to pay homage, bowed grovelling to the 
dust ; the crowd of onlookers shouting them- 
selves hoarse ** with," as we are told, " truly 
British huzzas." 

After that the trophy procession marched 
across to the Horse Guards archway, and through 
to Whitehall and the Chapel Royal ; between 



226 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH '* 

Life Guards on one side and more Foot Guards 
on the other, drawn up to keep a lane open through 
the immense crowd of people who had gathered 
there, and thronged the wide roadway. " The 
procession," says our reporter, " moved off the 
Parade amid the acclamations of many thousand 
spectators and entered the Chapel as the clock 
was striking eleven, which [sic] was crowded 
by all the beauty and fashion in Town." Another 
reporter speaks of the Chapel Royal as being 
" exceedingly crowded in all parts with nobility 
and gentlemen and ladies of distinction." 

" The religious part of the ceremony," we are 
told, " was solemn and impressive." It com- 
prised Morning Prayer and a sermon by the 
Sub-Dean. " Previous to the commencement 
of the Te Deum, a pause was made, when three 
grenadier sergeants entered at each door by the 
sides of the Altar with the Eagles on black poles 
about 8 feet high. They took their stations in 
front of the Altar. Each party was guarded by 
a file of grenadiers, commanded by two officers ; 
the whole of them with laurel-leaves in their caps 
as emblems of Victory. At the same instant 
the five French flags and Bonaparte's honourable 
standard entered the upper gallery at the back 
of the Altar, all carried by grenadier sergeants. 

" The whole remained presented for some time 
for the gratification of the beholders, after which 
the Eagles were placed in brass sockets on each 
side of the Altar, suspended by brass chains, 



STOLEN FROM CHELSEA AT MIDDAY 227 

The five flags were suspended from the front of 
the second gallery, and Bonaparte's honourable 
standard placed over the door of the second 
gallery, behind the others." 

The trophies, with others won at Salamanca 
and Waterloo, and subsequently laid up in the 
Chapel Royal, were removed later to Chelsea 
Royal Hospital, where all, except " the Eagle with 
the Golden Wreath," are now kept treasured amid 
befitting surroundings. 

"The Eagle with the Golden AVreath " dis- 
appeared from Chelsea Hospital in broad daylight. 
It was displayed in the Chapel, affixed in front 
of the organ-loft over the doorway, until it sud- 
denly vanished from there a little after midday 
on Friday, April 16, 1852, in the absence of the 
pensioner-custodian of the Chapel during the 
Hospital dinner-hour. How it was stolen was 
apparent ; but the thief was never traced. The 
thief, attracted undoubtedly by the widely told 
story that the wreath was of gold, made his way 
into the Chapel by the roof, which was under- 
going repairs at the time, to which he got access 
by a workman's ladder. He got inside by the 
trap-door on the leads above the organ-loft. 
There, with a saw, he cut through the Eagle-pole 
near where it was fastened to the organ-loft, 
and, secreting it under his coat, made his escape 
by the way he had come, unseen by anybody. 
The Eagle-pole was found outside, in front of 
the building, with the Eagle and wreath wrenched 



228 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

off. For some reason the Royal Hospital au- 
thorities of the day offered a reward of only a 
sovereign, and though the London police did 
their best, the malefactor was never discovered.^ 
At Barrosa Napoleon's 8th of the Line was 
in the French column that made its attack on 
the right. It was one of the regiments that 
charged forward across the plain at the foot 
of Barrosa ridge, to break through General 
Graham's second brigade and drive it back to 
the edge of the cliffs by the seashore, while the 
French left attack seized the ridge itself, and 
beat back the British first brigade in the act of 
hastening to regain that unwisely abandoned 
position. The Eagle went down in the fierce 
counter-attack with which Graham's men on the 
plain, the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers in the front 
line, met the French onset. 

* The present imitation Eagle at Chelsea was specially cast in 
brass from a mould of one of other trophies ; one of the Eagles 
of the 82nd being used as the model. The imitation wreath was 
made from a sketch by an old officer of the Hospital staff. The 
Eagle and wreath were specially reproduced in order that the 
Barrosa Eagle trophy should be represented among the Peninsu- 
lar and Waterloo Eagles displayed together at the head of the 
catafalque on the occasion of the lying-in-state at Chelsea of the 
remains of the Duke of Wellington, seven months after the 
theft. The dummy is in the Chapel at Chelsea now, with a brass 
tablet beneath it notifying that it is not the original Eagle, set 
up where the Barrosa Eagle used to be, in front of the organ-loft. 
The existing staff, however, is genuine. It is the Eagle-pole that 
the thief threw away in his fright ; the staff actually borne by 
the Porte-Aigle of Napoleon's 8th of the Line imder fire at 
Austerlitz and Friedland ; the identical staff inclined in salute 
with the Eagle to Napoleon on the throne on the Day of the 
Eagles on the Field of Mars. 



"IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP THEM" 229 

What befell the 8th of the Line is told by one 
of their own officers in his Journal de Guerre — 
Lieutenant- Colonel Vigo-Roussillon, in command 
of the First Battalion, with which was the Eagle. 

Just before the critical moment, says Colonel 
Roussillon, the 8th, who were on the flank of 
the French second line, lost touch with the 
regiment next them, and had in consequence to 
meet the 87th by themselves. They fired their 
hardest as the British troops came on, " but 
could not stop them, ever advancing to a bayonet 
attack." 

They came on silently, steadily, irresistibly. 
" Their officers," adds one of Victor's staff, 
" kept up all the time the old custom of striking 
with their canes those of the men who fell out o 
the ranks. Our own non-commissioned officers," 
he adds, *' placed as a supernumerary rank, 
crossed their muskets behind the squads, thus 
forming buttresses which kept the ranks from 
giving way. Several of the French officers, also, 
picked up the muskets of the wounded, and flung 
themselves into the gaps made in the ranks of 
the men." 

" I saw the English line," describes Colonel 
Roussillon again, " at sixty paces continuing to 
advance at a slow step without firing. It 
seemed impossible to stop them ; we had not 
sufficient men." 

Apparently he then caught sight of General 
Graham, leading the British line. 



230 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

" Under the influence of a sort of despair, I 
urged forward my charger, a strong Polish horse, 
against an English mounted officer who seemed 
to be the colonel of the nearest regiment coming 
on at us. I got up to him, and was about to run 
him through with my sword, when I was held 
back by a sense of compassion and abandoned 
the murderous thought. He was an officer with 
white hair and a fine figure, and had his hat 
in his hand, and was cheering on his men. His 
calmness and noble air of dignity irresistibly 
arrested my arm." 

Such is the lieutenant-colonel's own account. 
But did he really get quite close to the general ? 
Graham was the last man in the world to let him 
get back unfought ! 

" I then," as Vigo-Roussillon continues, 
*' quickly galloped back to my own men, and 
was riding along the line, telling them to meet 
the enemy with our bayonets, and drive them 
back, when a bullet from an English marksman 
broke my right leg. 

" I managed to dismount and tried to pass 
through in rear of the line, but it was impossible 
to walk. The ground was covered with thick 
bushes, and I was crippled and in great pain. 
All I could do was to sit down where I was, 
calling on the men to fire again. A moment 
later I was enveloped in smoke ; and at the same 
instant the English charged in among us. 

*' I called out my loudest, cheering on my 



"FIGHTING WITH THEIR FISTS" 231 

men ; and now two soldiers tried to lift me up 
and carry me. But both were shot down. 

-*For the time we held our own, and kept the 
enemy back ; but some of the English got round 
us. Seeing themselves outflanked, the battalion 
began to give ground. Then came a second 
furious charge from the English, and that broke 
us." 

The fight, man to man, went on desperately 
for several minutes — some of the British soldiers, 
as yet another French officers relates, fighting 
with their fists. " Many of the Englishmen 
broke their weapons in striking with the butts 
or bayonets ; but they never seemed to think 
of using the swords they wore at their sides. They 
went on fighting with their fists." 

It was in the final melee that "the Eagle with 
the Golden Wreath " was taken ; after a sharp and 
fierce hand-to-hand fight round it. 

Colonel Roussillon himself was at almost the 
same moment struck down, and lay insensible 
for a space among the dead near by. He was 
recovering his senses and trying to stand up, when, 
as he tells, a British sergeant saw him and ran at 
him with his halberd. He parried the thrust, 
and kept the sergeant off, and then a British officer 
came up. To him the Commandant of the First 
Battalion of the 8th surrendered his sword. 

The fight for the Eagle — on one hand to take it, 
on the other to keep it — was furious ; desper- 
ately and heroically contested by both sides. 



232 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

First, a gallant Irish boy, from Kilkenny, 
Ensign Edward Keogh of the 87th, caught sight 
of it, borne on high above the fray. There 
had been no unscrewing of the Eagle of the 
8th, no trying to break it from its pole. *' See 
that Eagle, sergeant ! " called Keogh to Ser- 
geant Masterton, among the foremost, close 
by his officer; and then he dashed straight 
into the thick of the party round the Eagle, 
sword in hand. The brave lad cut his way 
through, with Masterton and four or five privates 
close behind him. He got close up to the " Porte- 
Aigle," crossed swords with him, and got a grip 
of the Eagle-pole. But he could not wrench it 
from the no less brave Frenchman's hands before 
he went down with half a dozen musket bullets 
and bayonet stabs in his body. 

Porte-Aigle Guillemin, as the gallant French 
Eagle-bearer of the 8th was named, fell dead at 
the same moment, shot through the head by 
one of the British privates. 

Instantly other Frenchmen rushed up to save 
the Eagle, and formed round it hastily. One 
of the British privates who seized hold of the staff 
was slashed to death, and the French recovered 
it. The fight round the Eagle went on for some 
minutes. In that time no fewer than seven 
French officers and sub-officers fell dead in de- 
fence of the Eagle. An eighth officer. Lieu- 
tenant Gazan, clung to the pole to the last, 
regardless of wounds that nearly hacked him to 



HOW THE TUSSLE ENDED 233 

pieces. Finally the Eagle was torn from his 
grasp by Sergeant Masterton, at the end the sole 
unwounded survivor of the attacking British 
party. Gazan " survived miraculously," and 
lived to be decorated by Napoleon for his de- 
voted courage. Masterton seized the Eagle and 
kept it. So " the Eagle with the Golden 
Wreath" became a British trophy. 

From the crossing of the bayonets in the final 
charge to the taking of the Eagle, the melee lasted 
about fifteen minutes. 

The remnant of the 8th were saved by a rally 
to the spot by the French 54th, after another 
regiment, the 47th, had attempted its rescue in 
vain. The 47th lost their Eagle in the meUe, 
but recovered it. " The man who had charge 
of it was obliged to throw it away, from ex- 
cessive fatigue and a wound," explains a British 
officer. The 8th lost at Barrosa their Colonel 
(Autie) and the Lieutenant- Colonel of the Second 
Battalion, killed; Vigo-Roussillon, of the First 
Battalion, wounded ; and 17 other officers and 
934 of the rank and file killed or wounded. 
The Moniteur, the official Paris newspaper under 
the Napoleonic rSgime, in reporting the battle 
of April 5, referred to the loss of the Eagle in 
these terms : "A battalion of the 8th, having 
been charged in wood-covered ground, and the 
Eagle-bearer being killed, his Eagle has not been 
found since." 

The battalion that fared so hardly had to pay 



234 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH " 

the regulation penalty. Napoleon gave the 8th 
no other Eagle. He held rigidly to his rule, 
and set his face relentlessly against a second 
presentation. They must present him first with 
a standard taken on the battlefield from the 
enemy. But with Wellington's men opposed 
to them to the end, the 8th got few chances in 
that direction. They had to fight without an 
Eagle to the close of the Peninsular War. 

Two days after Barrosa, when General Graham 
re-entered Cadiz with the Spanish army, " the 
Eagle with the Golden Wreath " was publicly 
paraded through the crowded streets, " between 
the regimental colours," as the 87th marched to 
barracks, the church bells ringing triumphantly, 
and amid exultant shouts and cheers of the 
populace, and cries of *' Long live Spain ! Death 
to our oppressors ! " At the barracks " we 
presented the Eagle to our gallant commander," 
says one of the officers. 

The Eagle was then sent to England in the 
custody of the officer carrying General Graham's 
despatch. Its capture is commemorated to 
this day by the Royal Irish Fusiliers, who 
wear " an Eagle with a Wreath of Laurel " 
as a regimental badge, while a similar Eagle 
is embroidered in gold on the regimental colour. 
Also, a representation of the wreathed Barrosa 
Eagle was granted later on as a special aug- 
mentation to the family arms of the officer who 
commanded the 87th in the battle. Major Hugh 



ONE OF THE PARIS WREATHS 235 

Gough, on his being raised to the Peerage while 
Commander-in-Chief in India after the first 
Sikh War. " The Aiglers " was always the 
regiment's sobriquet after Barrosa among their 
comrades in Wellington's army ; a sobriquet 
that has endured since then in the form of " the 
Aigle-Takers," although our modern recruits 
are said to prefer calling themselves " the Bird- 
Catchers." ' 

It was in this way that the Barrosa trophy 
Eagle came by its golden wreath. The decora- 
tion, as has been said, had nothing to do with 
Talavera. 

The wreath was one of those voted by the 
City of Paris to the regiments that had gone 
through the Jena and Polish frontier campaigns, 
the first of which was presented to the Imperial 
Guard. First of all, in the outburst of patriotic 
enthusiasm in France at the news of Jena, wreaths 
had been voted as decorations for the Eagles, 
by way of popular tribute to the regiments 
which had helped in dealing that staggering blow 
to the famous Prussian Army. After the crown- 
ing victory of Friedland which ended the war, 
in a fresh outburst of enthusiasm, golden wreaths 
were voted wholesale for the Eagles of all the 
corps that had taken part in the fighting that 

* In a letter from an officer of the 87th, published in the London 
papers, it is stated that the regiment also captured the Eagle of 
the French 47th, but " the man who had charge of it was obliged 
to throw it away, from excessive fatigue and a wound. We had 
been under arms for thirty-two hours before the action began." 



236 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH '» 

followed Jenaj during the nine months of war, 
down to the final day of Friedland. It was 
a costly guerdon, and their proposed generosity 
staggered the Paris municipality when the esti- 
mate was presented. No fewer than 378 wreaths 
— according to the official return — had to be pro- 
vided. But the vote had been carried by ac- 
clamation on its first proposal, and trumpeted 
all over France. Also, the Emperor had taken 
up with the idea warmly. The Paris authorities 
dared not back out, and had to go on with it in 
spite of the cost. They carried it out with so 
good a grace that, as the sequel, a suggestion 
came from the Tuileries that the Austerlitz 
battalions of the Grand Army which had not 
had the fortune to be in the Jena-Friedland 
campaign should receive wreaths as well, an 
Imperial hint that the authorities, shrinking 
from the extra expense, were so slow to fall in 
with, that in the end it had to be forced on them, 
by means of a bluntly worded letter through the 
Ministry of War. "Tell the Prefect of the 
Seine," wrote Napoleon to the War Minister, 
" that I expect wreaths of gold, similar to those 
given for Jena and Friedland, to be provided on 
behalf of the City of Paris for all the regiments 
at Austerlitz ! " 

The 8th was presented with its wreath in 
Paris, while on the way to take part in the Penin- 
sular War. It was one of the regiments of the 
First Corps of the Grand Army, which Napoleon 



ACROSS GERMANY IN CARTS 23^ 

hastily recalled from Germany in the spring of 
1808, and hurried across Europe to reinforce the 
troops in Spain on the first news of serious 
trouble being on foot in that quarter. The whole 
First Army Corps was recalled ; starting from 
Berlin, where it had been quartered, and journey- 
ing by Magdeburg and Coblentz. Along the 
route the unfortunate German burgomasters 
and village authorities had to provide, not only 
provisions day by day, but transport vehicles 
for 30,000 soldiers ; mostly farm-carts and wagons, 
each taking from four to sixteen men. The 
troops travelled by night and day, with only 
two stoppages of fifty minutes each in the 
twenty-four hours, for meals, and the authorities 
of the villages and towns named as halting-places 
were compelled to have hot food kept ready so 
that the men might fall to instantly on arrival. 
It was a journey the soldiers never forgot. 
The weather was rough and wet, the roads 
in places were almost impassable, and the carts 
continually broke down, in addition to which 
the peasant-drivers requisitioned for the con- 
veyances deserted at every opportunity, usually 
going off at night with the horses after cutting 
the traces, leaving their wagon-loads of sleeping 
soldiers stranded by the roadside. 

The 8th received its wreath at the Barrier of 
Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris. It arrived 
with the Second Division of the corps, and the 
troops were met by the Prefect of the Seine and" 



238 " THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH '* 

the Municipal Council in State, while Marshal 
Victor, the commander of the Army Corps, at- 
tended the ceremony in full-dress uniform. He 
replied to the Prefect's complimentary address 
by declaring that " these golden crowns hence- 
forward decorating the Eagles of the First Corps 
will to them ever be additional incentives to 
victory." One by one the regiments passed 
before the Prefect, who hung round each Eagle's 
neck " a wreath of gold, shaped as two branches 
of laurel." A triumphal march into Paris and 
an open-air banquet to all ranks in the Tivoli 
Gardens, with free tickets to the theatres after 
it, wound up the day. 

All along the line of march through France 
to the Spanish frontier, banquets and elaborate 
festivities welcomed the regiments — and at the 
same time, it would appear, gave some of their 
entertainers more than they bargained for. The 
triumphal progress, from all accounts, proved 
such hard work for the ladies in the country 
towns, where public balls were in the programme 
every night, that at some places for the later 
comers — the 8th and other regiments in the 
Second Division of Marshal Victor's corps — the 
balls had to be abandoned, " because the ladies 
were too tired to dance any more." It was ex- 
plained, with apologies, that they had practic- 
ally been danced off their feet by the regiments 
of the First Division, which had preceded the 
Second, incessantly passing through during the 



THEY DID NOT MEET AT TALAVERA 289 

previous three weeks, and that " most of the 
ladies, through sheer fatigue, had taken to their 
beds ! " 

At Talavera, the 8th, as part of a brigade of 
three regiments, had a passage of arms on the 
battlefield, first with the British 83rd ; and then 
with the Guards ; lastly with the 48th, before 
whose magnificent charge in the final phase of 
the fight they had to give ground. They did 
not meet the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers at all 
in the battle.^ 

^ The successor to the 8th of the Line of the Grand Army in 
the Army of the Third Napoleon was, in its tvirn, no less un- 
fortunate than its predecessor. The Eagle of the 8th of the Line 
of the Army of the Second Empire is now at Potsdam, one of 
the spoils of the war of 1870-L It was carried through the 
streets of Berlin in the triumphal parade of the Prussian troops 
on their return home after the war, and after that, was de- 
posited over the vault of Frederick the Great in the Church at 
Potsdam in the presence of the old Kaiser Wilhelm, Moltke, 
Von Roon, and other leaders of the victorious host. It bears 
these " battle-honours," inscribed on its silken flag, among them 
" Talavera " : 

" AUSTEBLITZ 

1806. 

Fbiedland 

1807. 

Talavera 

1809. 

Anvers 

1832. 

Zaatcha 

1849. 

SOLFEBINO 
1859." 



17 



CHAPTER IX 

OTHER EAGLES IN ENGLAND FROM BATTLEFIELDS 
OF SPAIN 

Napoleon's Eagles made a second appearance 
before the London populace in the following 
year. That was on September 30, 1812, and 
the Horse Guards Parade was again the scene 
of the display — this time with more elaborate 
ceremonial, and with the added presence of yet 
greater personages. Queen Charlotte herself 
this time witnessed the reception ceremony, with 
four of the Princesses ; and the Prince Regent 
in person, " mounted on a white charger," 
attended, to be publicly done obeisance to by 
the humbled standards of the enemy. Four of 
his Royal brothers, the Dukes of Clarence, York, 
Cambridge, and Sussex, accompanied the Prince 
Regent. Only the poor old King, blind and 
insane, was absent of the Royal family, remain- 
ing in his seclusion at Windsor Castle. 

The Queen and Princesses watched the scene 
from the windows of the Lev6e Room at the 
Horse Guards, looking down over the Parade ; 
the Prince Regent was on the ground and took 
the salute. The Eagles this time were five in 

240 



THE EAGLES ARE HUMBLED AGAIN 241 

number; and four French flags, one of excep- 
tional interest, the garrison- standard of Badajoz, 
were with them in the procession. 

The military display was on the grandest 
scale possible ; the ensemble making up, as we 
are told, " a spectacle grand and impressive 
beyond anything ever beheld." The First and 
Second Life Guards were present, " drawn up 
in a line reaching from the Foreign Office nearly 
to Carlton House," with their bands in State 
dress and their standards. All three regiments 
of Foot Guards took part, with the State Colour 
of the First Guards, and three bands. Horse 
and Foot Artillery from Woolwich were also 
there ; forming by themselves one side of the 
great hollow square which occupied the wdde 
space of the ground, the scene of the reception 
of '' the Eagle with the Golden Wreath." Ninety 
grenadiers, drawn from the three regiments of 
Foot Guards, thirty from each, formed the 
trophy-escort, which, as before, accompanied 
the Eagles and captured standards round the 
square at a slow march — the five Eagles in ad- 
vance by themselves, borne by as many Guards' 
sergeants between files of grenadiers with fixed 
bayonets. 

Again the trophies of Napoleon were spared 
nothing in the humiliation that they had to 
undergo. Twice were they lowered to the dust 
before the Queen ; twice to the Prince Regent ; 
eight times before the standards of the Life 



242 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

Guards ; three times before the standards of 
the Guards and the King's Colour of the First 
Guards, '' the immense concourse of spectators 
rending the air with their huzzas " every time 
the trophies went down. Then, as before, the 
trophies were paraded across Whitehall to the 
Chapel Royal, and solemnly " churched " and 
hung up there, before the Royal family and 
" all the Cabinet Ministers and the leading 
members of the nobility in London." 

They were this time all Wellington's trophies. 
Two of the Eagles were spoils from the battle 
of Salamanca — " dreadfully mutilated and dis- 
figured in the conflict," according to a newspaper 
reporter's account, " one of them having lost 
its head, part of the neck, one leg, half the 
thunderbolt, and the distinctive number ; the 
other without one leg and the thunderbolt." 
Two had been taken in Madrid " in more perfect 
state and without their flags." The last of the 
five had been " found on the way to Ciudad 
Rodrigo, in the bed of a river, dried up in summer, 
having been thrown away some months before 
during Massena's retreat." The four Eagles 
which still bore distinctive numbers were, we are 
told, " those of the 22nd, 13th, and 51st and 
the 39th." Of the standards, the garrison flag 
of Badajoz looked " like a sieve, a great part of 
it quite red with human blood " ; the four other 
colours " were so mutilated that not a letter or 
device was legible." 



WELLINGTON AND SALAMANCA 243 

How we came by the trophies so displayed in 
London on that Wednesday forenoon is our 
story. 

The two Salamanca Eagles were — and are, 
for they have a place to-day among our Chelsea 
Hospital trophies — mementoes of one of the most 
dramatic episodes of a battle in which there were 
many. 

Salamanca, it may be said incidentally — the 
battle, like Waterloo, was fought on a Sunday, 
on July 22, 1812 — was, in Wellington's own 
eyes, his chef d'oeuvre, his masterpiece, although 
it may be rather overlooked now perhaps by 
most of us and the world at large, eclipsed in 
the dazzling splendour of the last crowning 
victory of Waterloo. It w^as at Salamanca that 
Wellington, in the words of a French officer, 
speaking, of course, in general terms, " defeated 
40,000 men in forty minutes." The victory was 
held in such estimation by Wellington himself 
that he selected it in preference to all his other 
victories to be displayed over again in a sham 
fight on the Plain of Saint-Denis in the presence 
of the three Allied Sovereigns during the occu- 
pation of Paris in 1815 after Waterloo. Of it 
he wrote at the time : "I never saw an army 
receive such a beating." 

Upwards of 6,000 prisoners were taken, in- 
cluding one general and 136 other officers. Six 
thousand of the enemy, at the lowest compu- 
tation, were left dead or wounded on the field 



244 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

of battle. Three French generals were killed 
and three wounded. Marshal Marmont himself, 
the enemy's commander-in-chief, was among 
the wounded; grievously maimed by a bursting 
shell as he galloped to rally one of his broken 
columns. " Spurring furiously to the point of 
danger, he was struck by the fragment of a 
shell, which shattered his left arm and tore open 
his side." Marmont bore the arm in a sling for 
the rest of his life. He was carried off the 
field under fire, on a stretcher made of a soldier's 
great-coat with a couple of muskets thrust 
through the armholes to give it shape, under 
the escort of a squad of grenadiers. Eleven 
cannon — melted down at Woolwich Arsenal in 
1820 as a cheap way of making new field-guns 
for the British Army — with the two Eagles and 
six stand of colours, were the trophies of the 
day. 

The two Salamanca trophy Eagles at Chelsea 
Hospital are the spoils of the fiercest cavalry 
charge that British horsemen ever delivered 
on a battlefield ; the death-ride — for 1,200 of 
Napoleon's infantry — of the Heavy Brigade, 
which annihilated an entire French division in 
less than a quarter of an hour. It came about 
as one of the results of that opening false move 
on the part of the French commander which 
cost France in the end the loss of the battle. 

Marmont, after a series of ably conducted 
manoeuvres in the neighbourhood of Salamanca, 



MARMONT'S FATAL BLUNDER 245 

had forced Wellington, on July 22, into a 
position so unfavourable that the British 
commander decided to retire towards the Portu- 
guese frontier under cover of darkness during 
the following night. But at the last moment 
the French marshal overreached himself. Taking 
in the difficulties that confronted his opponent 
he attempted to anticipate him and cut him off 
from his base by barring the one line of retreat 
that was open to Wellington. In doing that, 
Marmont gave his game away. He rashly 
divided his force in the presence of the enemy, 
separating his left wing to a distance from the 
main body and marching off a whole division of 
infantry, cavalry, and artillery to occupy the 
road to Ciudad Rodrigo. 

The fault was flagrant, and Wellington seized 
eagerly at the chance all unexpectedly offered 
him. He was at breakfast when Marmont's 
troops began their false move and the aide 
de camp whom he had posted on the look-out 
hurriedly came to him with the news. " I 

think they are extending to the left " the 

young officer began. He did not finish the 
sentence. 

" The devil they are ! " interposed Welling- 
ton hastily, with his mouth full. " Give me 
the glass ! " 

He took it, and for nearly a minute scanned 
the movements of the enemy with fixed atten- 
tion, 



^46 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

" By God ! " he ejaculated abruptly as he 
lowered the glass. " That'll do ! " 

He turned to another aide de camp. 

" Ride off and tell Clinton and Leith to return 
to their former ground." These were the 
generals commanding the Fifth and Sixth 
Divisions, on the right and right-centre of the 
British position. Then Wellington ordered up 
his horse. Closing his spy-glass with a snap, 
he turned with these words to his Spanish 
attache, Colonel Alava : " Mon cher Alava, 
Marmont est perdu ! " A moment later Welling- 
ton was on horseback and his staff also, all 
galloping off. 

Wellington grasped the meaning of Mar- 
mont's move. He saw his chance of falling on 
in force and overpowering the detached French 
wing before help could reach it. 

He made his way as fast as his charger could 
carry him to the British Third Division — 
Picton's men, temporarily commanded by 
Wellington's brother-in-law, General Sir Edward 
Pakenham. 

*' As he rode up to Pakenham," says an officer 
whose regiment was close by, " every eye was 
turned on him. He looked paler than usual, 
but was quite unruffled in his manner, and as 
calm as if the battle to be fought was nothing 
more than an ordinary assemblage of troops for 
a field-day." 

" Ned," said Wellington, as he drew rein 



A FURIOUS COUNTER-ATTACK 247 

beside Pakenham, tapping him on the shoulder 
and pointing in the direction of the separated 
French column as its leading troops were begin- 
ning to move towards their distant position, 
" Ned, d'ye see those fellows on the hill ? Throw 
your division in column, and at 'em and drive 
'em to the Devil ! " 

" I will, my lord, by God ! " was Pakenham's 
laconic reply, and he turned away to give the 
necessary orders. 

The two Eagles were taken in the course of 
Pakenham's attack, when the Third Division, 
with the Fifth advancing on one flank, was 
moving forward to meet the fierce counter- 
attack with which the enemy, after the first 
collision, attempted to make amends for their 
commander's blunder. 

" We were assailed," describes a British officer 
in the Third Division, " by a multitude who, 
reinforced, again rallied and turned upon us 
with fury. The peals of musketry along the 
centre continued without intermission, the smoke 
was so thick that nothing to our left was dis- 
tinguishable ; some men of the Fifth Division 
got intermingled with ours ; the dry grass was 
set on fire by the numerous cartridge-papers 
that strewed the battlefield ; the air was scorch- 
ing; and the smoke rolling onwards in huge 
volumes, nearly suffocated us." 

In the midst of the din and turmoil the Heavy 
Cavalry came suddenly on the scene. " A loud 



248 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

cheering was heard in our rear ; the Brigade 
half turned round, supposing themselves about 
to be attacked by the French cavalry. A few 
seconds passed, the trampling of horses was 
heard, the smoke cleared away, and the Heavy 
Brigade of Le Marchant was seen coming forward 
in line at a canter. ' Open right and left ! ' 
was an order quickly obeyed ; the line opened, 
and the cavalry passed through the intervals, 
and, forming rapidly in our front, prepared for 
their work." 

Catastrophe for the French assailants followed 
at once ; swift, overwhelming, irremediable. 
The enemy in front had practically ceased to 
exist within the next twelve minutes. The 
entire French division and its supporting troops 
were struck down and shattered ; broken to 
fragments and annihilated. 

There was a " whirling cloud of dust, moving 
swiftly forward and carrying within its womb 
the trampling sound of a charging multitude. 
As it passed the left of the Third Division, Le 
Marchant's heavy horsemen, flanked by Anson's 
Light Cavalry, broke out at full speed, and 
the next instant 1,200 French infantry, formed 
in several lines, were trampled down with 
terrible clangour and tumult. Bewildered and 
blinded they cast away their arms and ran 
through the openings of the British squadron, 
stooping and demanding quarter, while the 
dragoons, big men on big horses, rode on hard, 



CHARGING DOWN AT FULL GALLOP 249 

smiting with their long, glittering swords in 
uncontrollable power, and the Third Division, 
following at speed, shouted as the French 
masses fell in succession before this dreadful 
charge." 

So Napier describes the onset. 

Startled and aghast at what they saw coming 
at them, the French attempted hastily to form 
squares. But Le Marchant's impetuous squad- 
rons were too quick for them. They came 
swooping down, the troopers galloping their 
hardest, with loosened reins, all racing forward, 
charging down with the irresistible sweep of 
an avalanche, and crashed into the midst of 
the ill-fated infantrymen before the squares 
could be formed. 

Down on the enemy the cavalry thundered, 
1,200 flashing British sabres. Three of the finest 
regiments of the British Army formed the 
brigade — the 3rd Dragoons, the "King's Own" ; 
the 4th, " Queen's Own " ; the 5th Dragoon 
Guards — strong and burly men on big-boned 
horses, and with sharp-edged swords. " Nee 
aspera terrent " was — and is — the fearless motto 
of the gallant " King's Own," who showed the 
way ; and they flinched at nothing that day. 
" Vestigia nulla retrorsum " was — and is — the 
motto of the 5th, who closed the column ; and 
dead and wounded and prisoners were the ves- 
tiges they left in rear on that stricken field. 

General Edward Le Marchant, a daring and 



250 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

capable soldier — " a most noble officer," was 
what Wellington called him — led them. 

A French regiment a little in advance, the 
ill-fated 62nd of the Line, was the first to face 
the British, and to go down. They did not 
attempt to form square. They had, indeed, no 
time to do so. Yet they were in a formation 
sufficiently formidable. The 62nd was a regi- 
ment of three battalions, and stood formed up 
in a column of half-battalions, presenting six 
successive lines closely massed one behind the 
other. Their front ranks opened fire just before 
the leading horsemen reached them, but it did 
not check the British onset even for a moment. 
The cavalry bore vigorously forward at a gallop 
and burst into and through their column, riding 
it down on the spot. Nearly the whole regiment 
was killed, wounded, or taken ; leaving the 
broken remnants to be carried off as prisoners 
by the infantry of the Third Division as these 
raced up in rear, clearing the ground before 
them. 

The 62nd were disposed of by the cavalry in 
less than two minutes. According to French 
official returns, the unlucky regiment, out of a 
total strength that morning of 2,800 of all ranks 
in its three battalions, lost 20 officers and 
1,100 men in killed alone ; the survivors who 
escaped capture not being sufficient to form half 
a battalion. 

Cheering triumphantly, the charging squad- 



FOUR REGIMENTS CUT TO PIECES 251 

rons dashed on. They came full tilt on a 
second French regiment, the 22nd, catching it 
in the act of forming square. The front face 
of the square was already drawn up and met 
the troopers with a hasty volley which brought 
down some of the men and horses. But that 
made little difference. The next moment the 
cavalry were on them. The mass of the square 
in rear made but a weak effort at resistance. 
They swayed back, broke their ranks, and fell 
apart in utter confusion. Slashed down right 
and left, as had been the case with the 62nd, 
in little more than a minute only groups of 
fugitives were left, to be made prisoners by the 
British infantry, following in rear of the 
horsemen. 

The cavalry raced on then to attack a third 
French regiment. In turn it attempted to make 
a stand, but only to be dealt with in like manner. 
It, too, was caught before its square could be 
formed, and was ridden down. 

Yet another French battalion confronted the 
British troopers after that. It had had time to 
take advantage of a small copse, an open wood 
of evergreen oaks, where it formed its ranks 
in colonne serree, to await attack, and make a 
stand. " The men reserved their fire with much 
coolness, until the cavalry came within twenty 
yards. Then they poured it in on the concen- 
trated mass of men and horses with deadly 
effect. Nearly a third of the dragoons came to 



252 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

the ground, but the remainder had sufficient 
command of their horses to dash forward. They 
succeeded in breaking the French ranks and dis- 
persing them in utter confusion over the field." 

All the time the infantry in rear were racing 
on with exultant cheers, finishing off the horse- 
men's work as fast as they came up. It was an 
easy task. Further fight had been scared out 
of the French under the stress of the fearful 
experience they had gone through. " Such as 
got away from the sabres of the horsemen," says 
one of the British officers, " sought safety 
amongst the ranks of our infantry ; and, scramb- 
ling under their horses, ran to us for protection, 
like men who, having escaped the first shock of 
a wreck, will cling to any broken spar, no matter 
how little to be depended on. Hundreds of beings, 
frightfully disfigured, in whom the human face 
and form were almost obliterated — black with 
dust, worn down with fatigue, and covered with 
sabre-cuts and blood — threw themselves among 
us for safety. Not a man was bayoneted — not 
one even molested or plundered. The invincible 
old Third on this day surpassed themselves ; for 
they not only defeated their terrible enemies in 
a fair stand-up fight, but saved them when total 
annihilation seemed the only thing." 

The two Salamanca Eagles were taken now. 
They fell to two infantry officers as their actual 
captors : one to an officer of a regiment of the 
Third Division, and the other to an officer of the 



TAKEN IN HAND-TO-HAND FIGHT 253 

Fifth Division, which had come into the fight, 
and were following the cavalry, partly mingled 
with Pakenham's men. 

The first Eagle — that of the hapless French 
62nd, whose fate has been told — fell to Lieu- 
tenant Pierce of the 44th, a regiment in the 
Fifth Division. He came on the Eagle-bearer 
while in the act of unscrewing the Eagle from its 
pole in order to hide it under his long overcoat 
and get away with it. Pierce sprang on the 
Frenchman, and tussled with him for the Eagle. 
The second Porte- Aigle joined in the fight, where- 
upon three men of the 44th ran to their officer's 
assistance. A third Frenchman, a private, added 
himself to the combatants, and was in the act 
of bayoneting the British lieutenant, when one 
of the men of the 44th, Private Finlay, shot him 
through the head and saved the officer's life. 
Both the Porte-Aigles were killed a moment later 
— one by Lieutenant Pierce, who snatched the 
Eagle from its dead bearer's hands. In his 
excitement over the prize Pierce rewarded the 
privates who had helped him by emptying his 
pockets on the spot, and dividing what money 
he had on him amongst them — twenty dollars. 
A sergeant's halberd was then procured, on 
which the Eagle was stuck and carried trium- 
phantly through the remainder of the battle. 
Lieutenant Pierce presented it next morning to 
General Leith, the Commander of the Fifth 
Division, who directed him to carry it to Wei- 



254 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

lington. In honour of the exploit the 44th, now 
the Essex Regiment, bear the badge of a Napo- 
leonic Eagle on the regimental colour, and the 
officers wear a similar badge on their mess- 
jackets. 

The second Eagle taken was that of the 22nd 
of the Line. It was captured by a British 
officer of the 30th, Ensign Pratt, attached for 
duty to Major Cruikshank's 7th Portuguese, a 
Light Infantry (or Ca9adores) battalion, serving 
with the Third Division. He took it to General 
Pakenham, whose mounted orderly displayed 
the Eagle of the 22nd publicly after the battle, 
*' carrying it about wherever the general went for 
the next two days." 

Two more Eagles, it was widely reported in 
the Army, came into the possession of other 
regiments of the Third and Fifth Divisions. One 
of them is said to have " wanted its head and 
number"; but what became of them is un- 
known. Possibly the existence of these par- 
ticular trophies was merely camp gossip. Ac- 
cording to one story, an officer picked up one of 
the Eagles during the battle and " carried it 
about in his cap for some days." No Eagles, 
however, reached head-quarters after Salamanca 
except those of the 62nd and 22nd, which in due 
course were sent to England.^ 

* Southey, in his History of the Peninsular War, makes this 
ugly suggestion in regard to the Eagle trophies of Salamanca: 
"It is said that more than t(t were captured, but that there 



ONE THAT JUST ESCAPED 255 

One Eagle narrowly evaded capture at the 
hands of the Hanoverian Dragoons of the King's 
German Legion in the pursuit after Salamanca. 
It escaped — to find its way to Chelsea Hospital 
on a later day, as the famous trophy of our own 
1st Dragoons, the " Royals," at Waterloo. What 
took place when the Eagle of the 105th of the 
Line so nearly fell into the enemy's hands after 
Salamanca is a story that in its incidents stands 
by itself. 

General Anson's cavalry brigade, made up of 
British Light Dragoons and the Hanoverians, 
was sent in chase to follow and break up the wreck 
of the defeated army. It came upon the French 
rearguard in the act of taking post at a place 
called Garcia Hernandez. In front were several 
squadrons of cavalry ; in rear the 105th of the 
Line. The three battalions of the regiment 



were men base enough to conceal them and sell them to persons 
in Salamanca who deemed it good policy, as well as a profit- 
able speculation, to purchase them for the French." It may be, 
as to that, that Marmont's army lost more than the two Eagles 
now at Chelsea. It is of course possible that camp followers 
and Spanish peasants of the locality, wandering over the battle- 
field to strip and plunder the dead on the day after the battle, 
when Wellington and the army were miles away, picked up 
Eagles on the scene of so tremendous a disaster for the French. 
They might easily trafiic in them with French agents at Sala- 
manca, well aware of their value if they could be secretly restored 
to their regiments. It is, however, inconceivable that British 
soldiers could have acted as alleged and been guilty of the 
dastardly crime that Southey hints at. Four Eagle-poles, with 
screw tops and the Eagles gone, were found on the field by British 
burying-parties ; but those were all, and one of the four may 
have been the pole of the Eagle of the 62nd. 

18 



256 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

were moving in column, with guns in the inter- 
vals. Not seeing the French infantry and guns 
at first, owing to an intervening ridge, Anson 
rode for the cavalry and drove them in. " Their 
squadrons fled from Anson's troopers, abandoning 
three battalions of infantry, who in separate 
columns were making up a hollow slope, hoping 
to gain the crest of some heights before the pur- 
suing cavalry could fall on, and the two foremost 
did reach higher ground, and there formed in 
squares." The squares at once opened fire on 
the horsemen, and for a moment checked them. 
The Hanoverian Dragoons were the nearest 
of the pursuers to the rearmost of the French 
squares, and there was no way to ride past with- 
out exposing their flank at close range. Cap- 
tain Von Decken, who was leading the dragoons, 
on the spur of the moment took the daring 
decision to attack the square with the single 
squadron he had with him, then and there. With- 
out an instant's hesitation the gallant captain 
charged, regardless of the fierce fusillade that 
met him at once, from which his men went down 
all round. They dropped fast under fire. By 
twos, by threes, by tens, all round they fell ; 
yet the rest of them, surmounting the difficulties 
of the ground, hurled themselves in a mass on 
the column and went clean through it. 

The gallant Von Decken was among the first 
to go down, shot dead a hundred yards from 
the square. But a leader no less heroic was at 



A SQUARE CttAtiGfii) AND BROKEN 25t 

hand. Instantly Captain Von Uslar Gleichen, 
in charge of the left troop, dashed to the front. 
He rode out to the head of the squadron, in- 
citing his men by voice and gesture and example. 
Another French volley smote hard on the 
squadron, but the intrepid troopers galloped 
through it, and, bringing up their right flank, 
swept on towards the enemy's bayonets, making 
to attack the square on two sides. The two 
foremost ranks of the French were on the knee 
with bayonets to the front, presenting a deadly 
double row of steel. In rear the steady muskets 
of four standing ranks were levelled at the horse- 
men. The dragoons pressed on close up, and some 
were trying, in vain, to beat aside the bayonets 
before them, and make a gap through, when an 
accident at the critical moment gave the oppor- 
tunity. A shot from the kneeling ranks, appar- 
ently fired unintentionally, as it is said, killed a 
horse, and caused it with its rider to fall forward, 
right across and on top of the bayonets. Thus a 
lane was unexpectedly laid open to the cavalry. 
They seized the chance instantly and crowded 
in through. The square was broken. It was 
cleft apart : its ranks were scattered and dis- 
persed. All was over in a few moments. Within 
three minutes the entire battalion had been either 
cut down under the slaughtering swords of the 
dragoons or had been made prisoners. 

Immediately on that another Hanoverian 
captain. Von Reitzenstein, came sweeping by 



258 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

with the second squadron, riding for the second 
French square. These met the charge with a 
bold front and rapid volley, but their moral 
had been shaken by the startling and horrible 
scene they had just beheld. The front face of 
the second square gave way as the horsemen got 
close, and four-fifths of that battalion were either 
sabred on the spot or made prisoners. 

There was yet, near by, the third battalion in 
its square. Its numbers had been added to by 
such fugitive survivors from the first and second 
squares as had been able to reach the place and 
get inside. The third squadron of the Dragoons 
dealt with the third square in the same way, 
riding boldly at it, and breaking in with deadly 
results, as before. 

How the Eagle of the 105th was saved — it was 
with the first battalion in the square first broken 
— is not on record. It did, however, somehow, 
evade capture — hidden hastily perhaps beneath 
the coat of somebody in the handful of men 
who got away in the melee. Only the broken 
Eagle-pole was left, to be picked up among 
the dead after the fight : 

Described a British officer who went over 
the ground after the fight: 

" The contest ended in a dreadful massacre 
of the French infantry. The 105th bravely 
stood their ground, but the ponderous weight 
of the heavy cavalry broke down all resistance ; 
and arms lopped off, heads cloven to the spine, 



SPOILS TAKEN IN ANOTHER WAY 259 

or gashes across the breast and shoulders showed 
the fearful encounter that had taken place." 

The third of the trophy Eagles paraded in 
London before the Prince Regent was that of 
Napoleon's 39th of the Line. It had been 
picked up in the dried-up bed of the river Ceira, 
one of the tributaries of the Douro. Apparently 
the Eagle had been dropped, owing to the fall 
of its bearer during the night action of Foz 
d'Aronce on June 15, 1811, when Ney's corps 
of Mass^na's army, then retreating from Torres 
Vedras, was roughly handled and driven across 
the river by Wellington's Third and Light 
Divisions. 

The fourth and fifth of the Eagles were found 
at Madrid on Wellington's occupation of the 
city after Salamanca — stored away in the 
French arsenal and army depot there, to which 
uses the ancient Royal Palace of the Buen 
Retiro, just outside the walls of Madrid, had 
been converted.^ Seventeen hundred men held 
the Retiro, and the approaches to the arsenal 
had been fortified by order of Napoleon, but 
the garrison surrendered without firing a shot. 
They gave up to the victors 180 brass cannon, 
900 barrels of powder, 20,000 stand of arms, 
muskets and bayonets, together with the Eagles 
of the 13th and 51st of the Line, which had been 

* As to Napoleon's opinion in regard to the preservation of 
trophies so acquired, see his memo to Ney at Magdeburg, quoted 
in Chapter V., as footnote to page 141. 



260 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

laid up at the Retiro for safe custody while the 
two regiments were operating in a wild part of 
the country against the Spanish guerrillas.^ 

The last Eagles taken by Wellington in the 
Peninsular War came into our hands in the 
battles of the Pyrenees.^ Neither of them is 
now in existence. One was taken by our 28th 
in the combat of the Pass of Maya. The 28th, 
supporting the 92nd Highlanders in the fighting, 
overwhelmed with a series of fierce volleys an 
unfortunate French regiment, which was after- 
wards discovered to be the French 28th — 
a curious coincidence. The Eagle of the 28th, 
the senior corps of its brigade, was found on the 
battlefield, and was brought to England and 
hung in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. It dis- 
appeared from there in circumstances already 
related. The second French Eagle was that 
of the 52nd of the Line, presented by Welling- 

^ Napoleon had given permission to his marshals in Spain to 
grant colonels of regiments, in certain circumstances, discretionary 
powers as to the disposal of their Eagles. Colonels were author- 
ised, when their regiments were proceeding on what might be 
considered " exceptionally hazardous service," or when operating 
in difficult country, to keep the Eagles back, and leave them in 
camp or in a fortress. That is how Wellington in 1812 came to 
find the Eagles of the 13th and 51st of the Line at Madrid. 

2 On July 28, 1813, in a skirmish in the Pyrenees, the 40th 
(now the 2nd Somersetshire Regiment) surrounded and captured 
the French 32nd of the Line, rounding its First Battalion up in 
a valley and charging it with the bayonet, 24 officers and 700 
men being taken. The Eagle had been thrown into a rapid 
mountain torrent in sight of our men, during the retreat of the 
32nd, but it was impossible to prevent it, or to recover the Eagle 
afterwards. 



NAPOLEON'S ORDER OF RECALL 261 

ton, as has been told, to the Spanish Cortes. 
That also has since been entirely lost sight of. 

This also may be added. Early in 1813 a 
special order was issued by Napoleon to the 
army in Spain requiring the Eagles of most of 
the regiments to be sent back to France. Napo- 
leon at that time was in Paris, engaged in getting 
together a new Grand Army to replace that 
destroyed in Russia. The regiments in Spain, 
he said, would be so weakened by the intended 
withdrawal of their third, fourth, and fifth 
battalions (which he was recalling in order to 
send them to Germany for the coming campaign 
there), that the Eagles — in charge of the first 
battalions which were remaining in Spain — would 
be exposed to undue risk. " In future," he wrote, 
*' there will in Spain be only one Eagle to each 
brigade, that of the senior regiment of the bri- 
gade." The Eagles withdrawn from Spain, 
added the order, would " in the end rejoin the 
battalions with the Grand Army in Germany, 
as soon as these had been reconstituted afresh 
as regiments, with a sufficient force of men to 
ensure the safety of the Eagles." All the cavalry 
Eagles were recalled : " No regiment of Cavalry 
in Spain is to retain its Eagle. Those who have 
not done so are immediately to send theirs to 
the depot." 

It was due to this order mainly that at 
Vittoria, after the overwhelming rout of the 
French army, only one Eagle-pole — with its 



262 OTHER EAGLES FROM SPAIN 

Eagle gone — fell into British hands, although 
there had been on the field upwards of 70,000 
French soldiers (of whom 55,000 were infantry), 
and the French lost everything — in the words 
of one of their own generals (Gazan), " all their 
equipages, all their guns, all their treasure, all 
their stores, all their papers."^ 

^ Others of the Eagles had narrow escapes during the Peninsular 
War. In the fighting south of the Doiiro, near Grijon, on the 
day before Wellington's passage of the river at Oporto, the 
31st Light Infantry all but lost their Eagle on being charged by 
the British 14th and 20th Light Dragoons. The 31st broke in 
confusion before the British onset, and only rallied some miles 
from the battlefield. " Om' losses," described one of the officers, 
" were very heavy, but our Eagle, which had been in extreme 
peril in the encounter, was happily saved." Again, in the pur- 
suit up the mountain side after the defeat of Girard's Division 
at Arroyo dos Molinos, the Eagles of the 34th and 40th of the 
Line escaped capture — although both regiments were all but 
annihilated — to Marshal Soult's expressed relief. In reporting 
the reverse to Napoleon, Soult added this by way of solatium : 
" L'honneur des armes est sauve ; les Aigles ne sont pas tombes 
au pouvoir de I'ennemi." After Talavera, the Eagle of the 
25th of the Line was picked up on the battlefield by a party of 
the King's German Legion — it was sent to Hanover and is now 
in Berlin; also, during the battle, the British 29th took two 
Eagle-poles in a charge, but with the Eagles unscrewed from the 
tops and removed by the Eagle-bearers at the last moment and 
carried out of the fight under their coats. 



CHAPTER X 

IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

After Moscow : How the Eagles faced 
THEIR Fate 

There are seventy-five standards of Napoleon's 
Grand Army of 1812 now in Russia, trophies of 
the Moscow disaster. Rather more than half 
of the number are Eagles. The remainder of 
the trophies are battalion and cavalry flags ; some 
French, some the ensigns of allied contingents 
and the troops of vassal states of the Napoleonic 
Empire, compelled to take a part in the campaign. 
All the European armies of the period are 
represented among the trophies : green and 
white Saxon flags ; blue and white Bavarian 
flags ; violet and white Polish ensigns ; Spanish, 
Dutch, and Portuguese colours ; Swiss flags ; 
Westphalian and Baden flags of the Confedera- 
tion of the Rhine ; the red and black of Wiirtem- 
burg ; the yellow and black of Austria ; the white 
and black of Prussia ; the green, white, and red 
tricolor of Italv. 

They are preserved at St. Petersburg, in the 
Kazan Cathedral and in the Cathedral of St. 

2§3 



264 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

Peter and St. Paul. Those in the Kazan Cathe- 
dral are grouped over and round the tomb of the 
septuagenarian hero, Kutusoff, who lies buried 
on the spot where he knelt in prayer before 
setting out to take command as generalissimo 
of the national army. Near by, suspended 
against the pillars, are the marshal's baton of 
Davout, and the keys of Hamburg, Leipsic, 
Dresden, Rheims, Breda, and Utrecht, similarly 
spoils of the Napoleonic war.^ 

^ Elsewhere are other permanent trophies of the campaign, 
spoils of another kind. Nine htrndred and twenty-nine of 
Napoleon's cannon fell into Russian hands, mostly abandoned 
during the retreat, without attempt at defence. Of these, most 
are fittingly kept at Moscow ; they number 875, and are ex- 
hibited in the arsenal, or mounted as trophies in the public 
squares in the Holy City. As with the flags, they are not all 
French. Those bearing the French Imperial cypher, the letter 
" N " surmounted by the Eagle and Napoleonic crown, nimaber 
less than a half of the total. The French guns number 365 ; the 
bulk of the collection being made up of artillery from allied and 
vassal states : 189 Austrian cannon, 123 Prvissian, 70 Italian, 
40 Neapolitan, 34 Bavarian, 22 Dutch, 12 Saxon, 8 Spanish, 
5 Polish, with 7 Westphalian, Wiirtemburg, and Hanoverian 
pieces. The Prussian and Austrian guns, most of them, it is 
fair to say, were not captured from the contingents serving with 
the Grand Army in Russia : they formed part of the artillery 
marching with Napoleon's main column ; they belonged to the 
French army, and were manned by French gunners, being 
spoils from the Austerlitz, Wagram, and Jena campaigns, turned 
to account to form field batteries for the French army. In- 
numerable other reminders of the fate of the Grand Army are 
preserved all over Russia : soldiers' arms and accoutrements, 
personal belongings and decorations of French officers and men, 
fragments of uniforms, helmets, swords and lances, pistols and 
muskets ; relics mostly picked up on battlefields or by the 
wayside along the route of the retreat. The muskets serve to 
illustrate incidentally, in the variety of the woods vised for their 
stocks, the makeshifts to which, some time before 1812, the 



MOST OF THE EAGLES GOT THROUGH 265 

The actual Eagle trophies number all told 
between forty and fifty : less than a third of the 
total array of Eagles that crossed the Niemen at 
the head of their regiments on the outbreak of 
the war. The majority of the Eagles of the 
Grand Army were saved from falling into the 
hands of the Russians through the devoted 
heroism of those responsible for their safe-keeping 
amid the horrors of the retreat. Of those at St. 
Petersburg, not more than half at most were 
taken in actual combat, and they were only 

demands of Napoleon's armaments had reduced France : the 
musket-stocks of oak, chestnut, ekn, beech, maple, of even 
poplar and deal, tell a tale of exhausted supplies of the walnut 
and ash woods ordinarily tised in the manufacture of firearms. 
The total of 75 Eagles and other standards is no extravagantly 
large array of trophies, remembering the overwhelming natvire 
of the catastrophe to the Grand Army in Russia. Of the 600,000 
soldiers who mxistered rovmd their regimental colours at the 
crossing of the Niemen at the outset of the campaign, 125,000 
were killed in fight, and 193,048, according to the Russian official 
returns, were taken prisoners. In round numbers 250,000 died 
on the Une of march during the retreat, from cold, hardships, 
and starvation, or were killed as stragglers by the Cossacks and 
peasants. The mementoes also of their grim fate exist to-day in 
Russia. The graves of most of them may be seen all along the 
railway line from Wilna to Moscow, which follows closely the route 
of Napoleon and the Grand Army, over co\intry the same in 
appearance now as then ; a dreary, wind-swept, lonesome plain, 
broken only by vast stretches of dark, monotonous birch and 
pine forests, with here and there narrow ravines, and strips of 
hilly grotmd, amid which wind chill and sluggish rivers. At 
intervals huge mounds, looking like embankments or ancient 
barrows of enormous size, rise over the flat expanse of plain. 
They are the graves of the French dead. It took three months 
to destroy the remains of the dead soldiers and of some 150,000 
horses which perished in the campaign. The ghastly task was 
carried out locally by the peasantry, under an urgent Govern- 



266 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

yielded up by their bearers with life, being picked 
up from among the dead bodies, and carried off 
by the Russians on going over the field after the 
fight was over. Five Eagles only were sur- 
rendered by capitulation. The others were 
brought in by the Cossacks, who came upon them 
while prowling in rear of the retreating army. 
They were found, some in hollow trees, where 
their despairing bearers had tried to conceal 
them ; some in holes dug with bayonets in the 
frozen ground underneath the snow. Others 

ment order, so as to prevent the outbreak of pestilence in the 
spring from the vast numbers of unburied corpses that strewed 
the track of the ill-fated host. The bodies, when the snow 
thawed, were dragged together and collected in heaps each "half 
a verst long and two fathoms high," over 500 yards long and some 
14 feet high. At first, efforts were made to burn them, but the 
supply of firewood failed, and the stench all over the country 
was unbearable. The corpses were then hauled into shallow 
trenches alongside, and quicklime and earth heaped over them, 
making the mounds now to be seen along the railway, on either 
side of the old post-road from Wilna to Moscow, the route of 
Napoleon's retreat. In the province of Moscow, 50,000 dead 
soldiers and 29,000 dead horses were so disposed of before the 
middle of February ; in the province of Smolensk, by the end 
of the month, 72,000 dead soldiers and 52,000 horses ; in the 
province of Minsk, 40,000 hiunan corpses and 28,000 horses ; 
to which, later on, when the ice had melted, 12,000 more dead 
soldiers were added, the bodies found in the Beresina ; in the 
province of Wilna, also by the end of February, 73,000 dead 
soldiers, with 10,000 dead horses. There were, in addition, very 
many never accounted for : dead stragglers who had perished 
in the forests, their remains being devoured by the wolves ; and 
those who were massacred — beaten to death, or buried alive, 
or burned alive — by the peasants in places away from the line 
of march. Such was the appalling loss of life that attended 
the Moscow campaign, and which the trophies represent. In the 
circumstances, in proportion, the toll is hardly a large one. 



WHAT FRANCE REMEMBERS TO-DAY 267 

were dragged to light, broken from their staves, 
from beneath the coats or from the knapsacks 
of officers and men, who had fallen by the way at 
night and been frozen to death, during the final 
stage of the retreat between Wilna and the 
Niemen. It is in remembrance of how, to the 
last, during the Moscow retreat, in many a dark 
and hopeless hour, there yet remained detach- 
ments of devoted men, the last remnants of 
regiments, at all times ready to stand at bay 
and sacrifice themselves for the honour of their 
Eagles, amidst hordes of disorganised fugitives 
all round — in remembrance of that, the army 
of modern France commemorates on the colours 
of certain regiments, as representing corps that 
bore the same numbers in Napoleon's Grand 
Army in Russia, the names, among others, 
of " Marojaroslav," " Polotz," " Wiasma," 
" Krasnoi," " La Berezene," defeats and disasters 
though these were. 

The Eagles were under fire for the first time in 
Russia on July 17, in the attack on Smolensk on 
the Dnieper, the ancient Lithuanian capital, 
where took place the first important battle of the 
war. There the Eagles of Ney's and Davout's 
corps did their part in inciting the men to add 
fresh laurels to the fame of their regiments ; 
ever prominent in the attack, leading charge after 
charge as the columns made repeated efforts to 
storm the fortified suburbs and lofty ramparts 
of the citadel. The soldiers did all that intre- 



268 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

pidity and desperate valour might attempt, 
but in vain. No valour could prevail against the 
stubborn endurance of the Russians, who also 
occupied a strongly walled position that was 
practically impregnable. The fierce contest 
went on all through a whole day, until nightfall, 
and then, under cover of darkness, the defenders 
silently drew off and retreated beyond the city, 
leaving Smolensk in flames. No fewer than 
15,000 French and 10,000 Russians fell in the 
merciless encounter. 

Next morning there followed a spectacle 
hardly ever perhaps paralleled : the march of 
the Grand Army through the streets between the 
still blazing houses, " the martial columns ad- 
vancing in the finest order to the sound of military 
music." " We traversed between furnaces," 
as an officer puts it, *' tramping over the hot and 
smouldering ashes, in all the pomp of military 
splendour, bands playing and each Eagle leading 
its men." 

At Smolensk one regiment won its Eagle, which 
Napoleon presented at five o'clock in the morning 
on July 19, before the paraded battalions of 
Davout's corps. It was the 127th of the Line ; 
a regiment, it is curious to note, enrolled a few 
months before, from former Hanoverian subjects 
of our own King George the Third, and com- 
manded by French officers as a regular corps of 
the French Line. By Napoleon's latest ordi- 
nance, issued just before the Emi^eror quitted 



WON ON THE BATTLEFIELD 269 

Paris in May, the regiments newly raised for the 
Russian War, of which there were several, were 
in each case to win their Eagles on the battle- 
field. The Eagle for each regiment was to be 
provided in advance, but would be held back, 
locked up in the regimental chest, until it " should 
be won by distinguished conduct." The 127th 
won their Eagle at Smolensk, their brilliant 
service being specially brought before Napoleon 
by Marshal Davout, who, of his own initiative, 
claimed the Eagle for them from Napoleon. 
The regiment bore it with distinction through 
the hottest of the fighting at Borodino, carried 
it all through the disastrous retreat from Moscow, 
and preserved it to the end to go through the 
later campaign in Germany, and face the enemy 
after that in the last stand before Paris in 1814. 
The Eagle was eventually destroyed by order of 
the restored Bourbon Government. 

The second great battle-day of the Eagles in 
the Russian War was at Borodino, on Sep- 
tember 7. There a quarter of a million and 
more combatants faced each other : on one 
side, 132,000 Russians with 640 guns ; on the 
other, 133,000 French with 590 guns. The 
battle of Borodino was perhaps the most san- 
guinary and the most obstinately contested in 
history. The opening shots were fired at sun- 
rise. When at sunset both sides drew sullenly 
apart, exhausted after twelve hours of carnage, 
neither army was victorious. Each held the 



270 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

ground on which it had begun the battle ; 
25,000 men lay dead on the field, and 68,000 
more lay wounded, an appalling massacre that 
staggered even Napoleon. 

Amidst the ferocious savagery of the hand-to- 
hand fighting that characterised Borodino all 
over the field, many of the Eagles were in 
desperate peril. Several were cut off in the 
terrible havoc that the ferocious Russian counter- 
charges wrought in the French ranks, and were 
only saved by the stern fortitude of the soldiers, 
fighting at times back to back round the Eagles, 
keeping off the enemy with bayonet thrusts till 
help should come. In one part of the field the 
9th of the Line was isolated and for a time broken 
up and scattered. The Eagle-bearer was cut off 
by himself and surrounded. He saved the 
Eagle, as he fell wounded. " Amidst the con- 
fusion, wounded by two bayonet thrusts, I fell, 
but I was able to make an effort to prevent the 
Eagle falling into the hands of the enemy. Some 
of them rushed at me and closed round, but, 
getting to my feet, I managed to fling the Eagle, 
staff and all, over their heads towards some of 
our men, whom I had caught sight of, fortunately 
near by, trying to charge through and rescue the 
Eagle. This was all I could do before I fell 
again and was made prisoner." The brave 
fellow returned to France two years later, at the 
Peace of 1814, and made his way to the regimental 
d^pot, where he found barely twenty of his com- 



TWO EAGLES JUST SAVED 271 

rades at Borodino left. The rest had suc- 
cumbed during the retreat from Moscow. The 
survivors had brought back the Eagle to France ; 
only, however, to have to give it up to the new 
Minister of War for destruction. 

The 18th of the Line, broken in a Russian 
counter-attack, after storming one of the Russian 
redoubts erected to defend part of the position, 
rallied with their Eagle in their midst and held 
their ground in spite of repeated attacks until 
help could get through to them. At the roll- 
call next morning, 40 officers out of 50, and 
800 men out of 2,000 were reported as missing ; 
left dead or wounded on the field. Another 
regiment lost its colonel and half one battalion 
dead on the field ; the Eagle- Guard were all 
shot down or bayoneted round the Eagle, which 
in the end was saved and brought out of the 
battle by a corporal, who was awarded a com- 
mission by Napoleon in the presence of the 
remains of the regiment next day. The Eagle 
of the 61st of the Line again was only kept out 
of Russian hands by the devotion of the men 
round it. Napoleon rode past the regiment next 
day while being paraded for the roll to be called. 
Only two battalions were there, and he asked 
the colonel where the third battalion was. " It 
is in the redoubt. Sire ! " was the officer's reply, 
pointing in the direction of the Great Redoubt, 
round which some of the hardest fighting of the 
day had taken place. The battalion had liter- 
19 



272 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

ally been annihilated : not an officer or a man 
of the 1,100 in the third battalion of the 61st 
had returned from the fight. 

A regiment of Cuirassiers lost its Eagle at 
Borodino : the Eagle had disappeared in the 
midst of a fierce meUe, in which the Eagle-bearer 
had gone down. The loss was not discovered 
till later. All, however, refused to believe that 
it had been captured : that was incredible. The 
dead Eagle-bearer's body was found after the 
battle, but no Eagle was there. Overwhelmed 
with shame, the regiment had to admit that the 
impossible had happened, and during the weeks 
that they were at Moscow " they remained 
plunged in a profound dolour." The Eagle 
reappeared in an extraordinary way. In the 
retreat, when passing the scene of the battle, 
a ghastly and horrible spectacle with its un- 
buried corpses and the carcasses of horses strewn 
thickly and heaped up all over the field, a sudden 
thought struck one of the officers. Late that 
night, he and a brother officer, taking the risk 
of capture by Cossacks on the prowl in rear 
of the retreating army, rode back and found 
their way by moonlight to where the Cuirassiers 
had had their fight and the Eagle-bearer had 
fallen. They found the Eagle inside the carcass 
of the Eagle-bearer's horse. It had been thrust in 
there by the dying Eagle-bearer through the gap- 
ing wound that had killed the horse, as the only 
means to conceal it in the midst of the enemy. 



HOW THE EAGLES ENTERED MOSCOW 273 

The Eagles made their last triumphant entry 
into a conquered capital at Moscow on Sep- 
tember 14, the Eagle of the Old Guard leading 
the way at the head of the grenadiers of the 
Guard, all wearing for the day their full-dress 
parade uniform. As has been said, every officer 
and soldier of the Guard, by Napoleon's stand- 
ing order, carried a suit of full-dress uniform in 
his kit or knapsack on campaign in readiness 
for such occasions — " en tenue de parade comme 
si elle eut defiler au Carrousel." They had 
marched like that with music and full military 
pomp twice through Vienna, and through the 
streets of Berlin and Madrid ; but there was at 
Moscow a disconcerting and ominous difference, 
both in their surroundings and in the reception 
that they met. Elsewhere, alike in Vienna, 
Berlin, and Madrid, the parade march of the 
victorious Eagles passed through densely crowded 
streets of onlookers, silently gazing with de- 
jected mien at the scene. At Moscow not a 
soul was in the streets, at the windows, any- 
where ; on every side were emptiness and deso- 
lation. The inhabitants had fled the city, and 
only deserted houses remained. The first in- 
cendiary fires at Moscow broke out at midnight, 
within twelve hours of Napoleon taking up his 
residence in the Kremlin. 

The spell after that was broken. Hence- 
forward victory deserted the Eagles ; the hour 
of fate was at hand for Napoleon and the Grand 



274 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

Army. The Fortune of War, indeed, turned 
against the Eagles even before Napoleon had 
quitted Moscow. 

Early on October 18, Napoleon, while at 
breakfast in the Kremlin, suddenly heard distant 
cannonading away to the south. He learned 
what had happened that afternoon while holding 
a review of the Italian Royal Guard. " We 
hastily regained our quarters, packed up our 
parade-uniforms, put on our service kit . . . 
and to the sound of our drums and bands 
threaded our way through the streets of Moscow 
at five in the afternoon." During the past five 
weeks, while all had been outwardly quiet, the 
Russian armies had been manoevring to close in 
along the only road of retreat open to Napoleon. 

The nearest of the Russian armies, concen- 
trated to the south-west of Moscow, struck the 
first blow on October 18 at daybreak, by sur- 
prising Murat's cavalry camp near Vinkovo. 
The results to the French were disastrous. Two 
thousand of Murat's men were killed and as many 
more were taken prisoners. Between thirty and 
forty guns were lost, and Murat's personal camp- 
baggage train, which included " his silver canteens 
and cooking utensils, in which cats' and horse flesh 
were found prepared for food " — a discovery that 
opened the eyes of the Russians to the precarious 
position of affairs in Napoleon's army. Murat 
himself, according to one story, " rode off on 
the first alarm in his shirt." He only got away, 



THE FIRST SENT TO THE CZAR 275 

according to another, by cutting his way through 
the Russians sword in hand, at the head of his 
personal escort of carabineers. Two Eagles were 
spoils of the surprise ; the first to fall into Rus- 
sian hands in the war. They were lost in the 
general scrimmage, their bearers being sabred 
at the outset of the Russian onslaught. The 
Eagles were at once sent off to St. Petersburg 
to be presented to the Czar Alexander. 

On the other hand nine Eagles were saved, 
their escorts fighting their way successfully 
through the Russians. 

Many stories are recorded in memoirs of sur- 
vivors of the Grand Army of heroic endeavours 
made repeatedly by officers and men to save 
their Eagles from the enemy amid the disasters 
and horrors of the retreat. Their devotion and 
self-sacrifice had their reward in the preservation 
of seven Eagles in every ten. 

Two Eagles were lost fourteen days after 
leaving Moscow, in the disastrous battle at 
Wiasma on November 2, halfway on the road 
back to Smolensk, where the advanced columms 
of the pursuing Russians attacked and all but 
cut the retreating French army in two. The 
rearguard of the Grand Army, Marshal Davout's 
corps, with the Italian corps of the Viceroy 
Eugene Beauharnais, was overpowered and 
driven in and broken up ; crushed under the 
overpowering artillery fire of the Russians. They 
left behind 6,000 dead, 2,000 prisoners, and 27 



276 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

guns. Two Eagles were taken, their regiments 
being virtually annihilated, but twenty-one were 
saved. They were safeguarded through the rout 
by groups of brave-hearted officers and men, 
who beat off the rushes made at them by the 
Russian cavalry and the Cossacks. They fought 
their way through until they met Ney's troops, 
who had heard the firing and turned back, 
arriving in time to stem and check the Russian 
pursuit and enable what was left of the two 
shattered army corps to rally under their pro- 
tection. 

One infantry regiment at Wiasma perished on 

the battlefield to a man, but saved its Eagle. 

It was the rearmost of all, and was isolated 

and surrounded beyond reach of help. In vain 

its men formed square and tried to fight their 

way after the rest through the surging masses 

of the Russians. They made their way for a 

time until the enemy brought up artillery. A 

Russian battery galloped up, unlimbered close 

to them, and opened fire with murderous effect. 

The Frenchmen tried desperately to charge 

the guns, but were beaten back by a rush of 

cavalry. At last, in despair, they formed square 

and faced the cruel slaughter that the guns 

made in their ranks, in the hope that help might 

reach them. Terms were offered them and 

refused. They would not surrender, and fought 

on till dusk, when their ammunition gave out. 

The Russians were closing round for a final 



"WE HAVE DONE OUR DUTY!" 277 

decisive charge on the small handful of sur- 
vivors, when the wounded colonel, seeing all was 
over, made the attempt that saved the Eagle. 
The scanty remnant of what had that morning 
been a regiment of 3,000 men formed round in a 
ring, facing towards the enemy with bayonets 
levelled. The Eagle-staff was broken up and 
the fragments thrust under the ground. With 
flint and steel a match was lighted and the 
silken tricolor consumed. The Eagle was then 
tied up in a havresac and entrusted to an old 
soldier who was known to be a good rider. The 
colonel, giving up his own charger to the man, 
bade him watch his chance and, as the enemy 
came on in the dark, dash through them and 
ride his hardest. " Carry the Eagle to his 
Majesty," were the colonel's words. " Deliver 
it to him, and tell him that we have done our 
duty ! " The man rode off. He was able to 
get through the nearest Russians under cover 
of the darkness, having to fight his way before 
he got clear, and receiving several wounds. Then 
his horse fell dead from its injuries. On foot he 
stumbled on, and before midnight reached, not 
Napoleon, but Marshal Ney, to whom he gave 
up his precious charge. No officer or man of 
the others of the luckless regiment was ever 
heard of in France again. No prisoners from 
it ever returned — only the Eagle survived. 

Three days after Wiasma the Russian winter 
suddenly set in on the doomed host. It brought 



278 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

about at once the disintegration and disorgani- 
sation of the Grand Army. Already, de- 
moralised by their privation, hundreds of men 
had fallen out of the ranks, flinging away 
their muskets and knapsacks, and straggling along 
in disorderly groups. A third practically of the 
Army ceased to exist as a fighting force within 
the first fortnight of the retreat, before the first 
snows fell. The others, though, still kept to their 
duty. Marching in the ranks day after day, 
they strove their hardest to beat back the in- 
cessant attacks of the swarms of Cossacks, 
hovering round on the watch to raid the baggage- 
convoys at every block or stoppage on the 
road. With the coming of the snow the doom of 
the Grand Army was sealed. It was impossible 
to maintain discipline with the thermometer 
at twenty degrees below zero. Men dropped 
dead from cold by the score every half-mile. 

On November 6 the sun disappeared ; a grey 
fog enshrouded everything ; the frost set in ; 
and a bitter north wind in howling gusts swept 
over the face of the land ; with it came down the 
snow, falling hour after hour by day and night 
without ceasing. 

" From that day the Army lost its courage 
and its military instinct. The soldier no longer 
obeyed his officer. The officer separated himself 
from his general. The disbanded regiments 
marched in disorder. In their frantic search 
for food they spread themselves over the plain. 



WHEN THE COSSACKS GOT TO WORK 279 

pillaging and destroying whatever fell in their 
way." So a survivor wrote. 

The snow came down " in large broad flakes, 
which at once chilled and blinded the soldiers: 
the marchers, however, stumbled forward, men 
often struggling and at last sinking in holes 
and ravines that were concealed from them by 
the new and disguised appearance of the country. 
Those who yet retained discipline and kept 
their ranks stood some chance of receiving 
assistance ; but amid the mass of stragglers, 
the men's hearts, intent only on self-preservation, 
became hardened and closed against every feeling 
of sympathy and compassion. The storm- wind 
lifted the snow from the earth, as well as that 
steadily pelting down from above, into dizzy 
eddies round the soldiers. Many were hurled 
to the ground in this manner, while the 
same snow furnished them with an instant 
grave, under which they were concealed until 
the next summer came, to display their ghastly 
remains in the open air." 

The Cossacks redoubled their attacks on the 
retreating army after Wiasma. They had 
harassed the French incessantly from the day 
after Napoleon passed Mojaisk, but after Wiasma 
their audacity increased a hundredfold. They 
captured prisoners hourly, from among the 
stragglers mostly ; in droves, by fifties and 
hundreds at a time. Day after day they hung 
on the flanks, swooping down with loud shouts 



280 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

on the unfortunate wretches, rounding them up 
like sheep, and driving them before them towards 
their own camps at the points of their long 
lances. Many they killed on the spot, or 
stripped naked to perish in the snow. Others 
they drove along to the nearest camp of Kutu- 
soff's regulars for the sake of the money reward 
offered for prisoners brought in alive. Others 
again, to save themselves the trouble of driving 
them all the way to the army camp, they handed 
over to peasants in the villages, selling them 
at a rouble a head, for the peasants to make 
sport of and maltreat or kill. The brutalities and 
ruthless devastations that the French army 
had committed in its advance to Moscow had 
infuriated the Russian peasantry. Intent on 
vengeance they now made use of their oppor- 
tunity to the full. They burned alive some of 
their captives, by tossing them into pits half 
filled with blazing pine-logs. Seventy were 
done to death in this horrible way in one village. 
Others they buried up to their necks in the 
ground and left to die; or else tied them to 
trees for the wolves to tear to pieces.^ Others 
they clubbed or flogged to death, tying down 

* The wolves killed many of the stragglers as they wandered 
in search of food or shelter from the cold, away from the retreating 
columns. They followed in the track of the Grand Army to the 
last, across Germany to the Rhine. It is the fact, indeed, that 
the presence of wolves to-day in the forest lands of Central 
Europe is largely due to the tremendous incursion of ravenous 
brutes from Russia which swept in huge swarms in rear of 
Napoleon's ill-fated host, 



THE EAGLES OF NEY'S CORPS 281 

the wretched Frenchmen to logs on the ground, 
hounding on the women and children to hammer 
their heads to pieces with thick sticks. A 
common method of Cossacks and peasants alike 
for making prisoners was to light great watch- 
fires at night, a little way off from the retreat- 
ing column, and as the frozen and starving 
stragglers came crowding up to the blaze they 
surrounded them and carried them off whole- 
sale. 

After the snow set in, guns and baggage- 
wagons were abandoned to the Cossacks at 
almost every hundred yards. It was impossible 
for the weakened and dying horses to drag 
them along ; even to keep their footing on the 
frozen ground. Within the first week after 
Wiasma the appalling number of 30,000 horses 
either died of starvation, there being no way of 
getting fodder for them because of the snow, 
or were frozen to death. 

In spite of everything, some of the regiments 
still kept together and marched in military 
formation, with their Eagles at their head ; 
those in particular of Marshal Ney's corps. 
They formed the rearguard and chief protection 
to the army from Wiasma onwards ; held 
together by the heroic example and personality 
of their indefatigable leader, ever present where 
there was fighting, ever calm and confident, and 
ready with words of encouragement. Not an Eagle 
was lost along the line of march between Moscow 



282 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

and Smolensk by Ney's men; rallying round 
them to beat off the Cossack attacks time and 
again with the cry, " Aux Aigles ! Voici les 
Cosaques ! " 

This incident, not unlike the cuirassier ride 
to recover the Eagle left on the field at Boro- 
dino, is said to have taken place between Wiasma 
and Smolensk. One regiment of Ney's cavalry 
missed its Eagle after a sharp fight on the road, 
the Eagle-bearer having apparently fallen during 
the encounter, unseen by the survivors. That 
night round the bivouac fire lots were drawn, 
and two officers rode back amid blinding snow 
squalls to try to find the Eagle. They suc- 
cessfully evaded the Cossacks and made their 
way ten miles back to the scene of the combat, 
where, after scaring off some wolves, they 
searched in the snow and found the dead officer's 
body with the Eagle by its side. They brought 
it back safely to the regiment and restored it 
to their comrades. Their limbs were frost-bitten 
and rigid from cold, so that they had to be 
lifted off their horses, but the brave men were 
content — they had saved their Eagle. 

At Krasnoi, on November 19, between 
Smolensk and the Beresina, Napoleon under- 
went another severe defeat from the pursuing 
Russians, 10,000 prisoners and 70 guns falling 
into the victors' hands. Two Eagles were 
carried off from the battlefield and despatched 
to St. Petersburg by special courier, together 



so FAR TEN EAGLES LOST 288 

with Kutusoff's report to the Czar. Twenty- 
seven Eagles, however, got past the Russians, 
fighting their way through, thanks to the en- 
durance of brave men who rallied round them. 
Krasnoi it was that gave the death-blow to 
Napoleon's last hope of rallying the Grand Army. 
After it less than 30,000 men remained under 
arms with the main column, including the 
8,000 survivors of the Imperial Guard. Up to 
then, according to the Russian official returns, 
80,000 prisoners, 500 guns, and " 40 standards 
and flags of all kinds " had fallen into the hands 
of the pursuers. Not more than ten, however, 
of the forty standards taken were Eagles : the 
two taken at Murat's surprise at Vinkovo ; the 
two taken at Wiasma ; the two taken at Kras- 
noi ; also two taken before Napoleon reached 
Smolensk, from a brigade sent from Smolensk 
to help him on the road, which blundered into 
the middle of the Russian army and had to 
surrender ; and two captured elsewhere, from 
the French flanking armies of Marshal Mac- 
donald and Marshal St. Cyr. An eleventh 
Eagle was taken in the second battle at Krasnoi, 
from Ney's rearguard ; the only Eagle that Ney 
actually lost in fight throughout the 600 miles' 
march between Moscow and the frontier. 

At Krasnoi, Ney's rearguard, following at a 
day's march behind the rest of the army, found 
its way barred. The Russians, after defeating 
Napoleon's main column, a day's march in 



284 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

advance, had waited on the scene of the former 
fighting for Ney. They held a position that it 
was practically impossible for Ney's compara- 
tively small force to get past. After vainly 
attempting to break through, Ney had to draw 
back, and make a forlorn-hope effort to avoid 
destruction by a long detour, in the course of 
which he had to abandon guns, baggage, and 
horses, and cross the Dnieper on ice hardly thick 
enough to bear the weight of a man. 

On the eve of Krasnoi, indeed, the rearguard 
found itself in so desperate a position, that Ney 
ordered all its Eagles to be destroyed. His 
regiments had suffered so severely in their con- 
tinuous fighting, that it was impossible ade- 
quately to safeguard the Eagles. Every musket 
and bayonet was wanted in the fighting line. 
It was impossible to supply sufficient Eagle- 
escorts. So far, in spite of the dreadful straits 
to which some of the regiments had been reduced, 
all had marched openly with their Eagles, and 
fought round them, guarding them sedulously 
by night and day. " When excess of fatigue 
constrained us to take a few moments of repose," 
describes Colonel De Fesenzac of the 4th of the 
Line, " we (what was left of the regiment able 
to carry arms — not 100 men) assembled together 
in any place where we could find shelter, a few 
of the men standing by to mount guard for the 
protection of the regimental Eagle." 

" Then," describes the colonel, " came the 



"THEY OUGHT TO PERISH WITH US" 285 

order that all the Eagles should be broken up and 
buried. As I could not make up my mind to 
this, I directed that the staff should be burned, 
and that the Eagle of the 4th Regiment should 
be stowed in the knapsack of one of the Eagle- 
bearers, by whose side I kept my post on the 
march." The Eagle of the 4th, it may be added 
by the way, was the identical Eagle that Napo- 
leon had presented to the regiment in place of 
that lost at Austerlitz, in exchange for, as has 
been told, two captured Austrian flags. 

Other officers did the same as Colonel De 
Fesenzac. Oiie officer, however, the colonel of 
the 18th of the Line, flatly refused to have his 
regimental Eagle either broken up or hidden 
away. " The Eagle," he says in his journal, 
which still exists, " had throughout, until then, 
been carried at the head of the regiment, and I 
declined to obey the order on behalf of the 18th. 
It seemed to us a monstrous ignominy. Our 
Eagles were not given us to be made away with 
or hidden : they ought to perish with us." The 
Eagle of the 18th did actually perish with the 
regiment. In the rearguard repulse at Krasnoi 
the entire regiment was destroyed, except for 
some twenty survivors, including the colonel, 
severely wounded. " Our Eagle," says the gal- 
lant colonel, proudly recording its fate, *' re- 
mained among our dead on the field of battle." 

That Eagle of the 18th was the only one of 
Marshal Ney's Eagles to fall into the hands of 



286 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

the Russians in battle. Some ten of the Eagles 
now at St. Petersburg were found on the bodies 
of officers and men who had been either frozen 
to death or had fallen dead on the march during 
Ney's retreat after Krasnoi ; they were not taken 
in fight. 

Ney rejoined Napoleon with only 1,500 men 
left out of 12,000, of which the rearguard had 
consisted when it left Smolensk. It was while 
making his last effort to get past the Russians 
after his attempt to break through at Krasnoi 
had failed, that Ney, overtaken on the banks of 
the half-frozen Dnieper on the evening before he 
risked his perilous crossing, and summoned by 
the Russians to surrender, made that proudly 
defiant reply which has ever since been a treasured 
memory to the French Army : "A Marshal of 
France never surrenders ! " Six hours later he 
had evaded capture and, with the remnant of 
his corps, was across the river. All the world 
has heard how Napoleon, hopeless of seeing him 
again, welcomed Ney with the words : "I have 
three hundred millions of francs in the vaults of 
the Tuileries ; I would have given them all for 
Marshal Ney ! " 

The remaining Eagles had by now been as- 
sembled for preservation under the protection 
of what troops of the main column, which 
Napoleon accompanied, still continued under 
arms. Further effort to rally the shattered host 
was beyond possibility. Only portions of the 



ALL KEPT TOGETHER FOR SAFETY 287 

two army corps of Marshals Victor and Oudinot, 
called in from holding the line of communications, 
still retained military formation, together with 
the reduced battalions of the Old Guard which 
had kept near Napoleon throughout. To save 
the remaining Eagles, the officers of broken-up 
and disbanded regiments, with some devoted 
soldiers who stood by them, took personal charge 
of the Eagles, and carried them with their own 
hands. Banding together and marching in com- 
pany side by side, they tramped on, plodding 
through the snow day and night for 200 miles ; 
the collected Eagles all massed in the centre. 
They attached themselves to the column of the 
Old Guard, and kept their way close by Napoleon. 

A survivor of the retreat from Moscow, in his 
memoirs, describes how he saw Napoleon and the 
Eagles pass by him on the way to the Beresina 
on the morning of November 25 : 

" Those in advance seemed to be generals, a 
few on horseback, but the greater part on foot. 
There was also a great number of other officers, 
the remnant of the Doomed Squadron and Bat- 
talion, formed on the 22nd and barely existing 
at the end of three days. Those on foot dragged 
themselves painfully along, almost all of them 
having their feet frozen and wrapped in rags or 
in bits of sheep's-skin, and all nearly dying of 
hunger. Afterwards came the small remains 
of the Cavalry of the Guard. The Emperor 
came next, on foot, and carrying a staff. He 
20 



288 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

wore a large cloak lined with fur, and had a red 
velvet cap with black-fox fur on his head. Murat 
walked on foot at his right, and on his left the 
Prince Eugene, Viceroy of Italy. Next came 
the Marshals Berthier — Prince of Neufchatel — 
Ney, Mortier, Lefebvre, with other marshals and 
generals whose corps had been annihilated. 

" The Emperor mounted a horse as soon as he 
had passed ; so did a few of those with him : 
the greater part of them had no horses to ride. 
Seven or eight hundred officers and non-com- 
missioned officers followed, walking in order and 
perfect silence, and carrying the Eagles of their 
different regiments, which had so often led them 
to victory. This was all that remained of 60,000 
men. 

" After them came the Imperial Guard on 
foot, marching also in order." 

Four Eagles were lost in the fighting at the 
passage of the Beresina, where a whole division 
of Marshal Victor's corps (General Parton- 
neaux's) was cut off and compelled to surrender. 
On the last night, when either massacre under 
the Russian guns or laying down their arms was 
all that was left to them, they broke up and 
buried their Eagles in the ground underneath 
the snow. The officers of one regiment, it is 
told, broke up their Eagle before burying it, 
burned the flag at their last bivouac fire, mixed 
the ashes with thawed snow, and swallowed the 
concoction. 



WHEN THE LAST HOPE WAS GONE 289 

The little column of officers with their Eagles 
passed the Beresina with the Guard, and thus 
escaped that last catastrophe, the crowning 
horror of the bridge disaster, when 24,000 ill- 
fated human beings were sent to their account ; 
either killed in the fighting with the Russians, 
or drowned in the river, jammed together on the 
burning bridge, while the Russian guns from the 
rear thundered on them with shot and shell. 

The officer-escort with the Eagles tramped on 
until Wilna was reached ; until after Napoleon 
had left the army and set off for Paris. Then, 
on the final falling apart of the remnants of the 
stricken host, the officers themselves dispersed, 
to escape as best they could individually and 
get to the Niemen ; breaking up the Eagle-poles 
and concealing the Eagles and flags in knapsacks 
or under their uniforms. The dispersal, says one 
officer, was at Napoleon's own instance. " He 
ordered all the officers who had no troops to make 
the best of their way at once to the Neimen, 
considering that their services had best be saved 
for the future army he was going to Paris to raise 
and organise." That is one story. According to 
another officer, utter despair at their frightful 
position, abandoned by their chief, was the cause 
of the break-up at Wilna and the final debdcle. 
" Until then a few armed soldiers, led by their 
officers, had still rallied round the Eagles. Now, 
however, the officers began to break away, and 
the soldiers became fewer and fewer, and those 



2D0 IN THE HOUH OF DARKEST DISASTER 

left were finally reduced, of necessity, some to 
conceal the Eagles in knapsacks, others to make 
away with them.'' Some of the officers fell dead 
on the way to the Neimen, struck down sud- 
denly by the cold, and their Eagles remained 
with them. Others who died, with their last 
strength tried to put their charges beyond reach 
of the enemy by scraping or digging holes in 
the frozen ground, and burying the Eagles.^ 

* Coignet, then a lieutenant of the Old Guard, thus speaks 
of the horrors of those latter days immediately following the 
Beresina: "The cold continued to grow more intense; the 
horses in the bivouacs died of hunger and cold. Every day 
some were left where we had passed the night. The roads were 
like glass. The horses fell down, and could not get up. Our 
worn-out soldiers no longer had strength to carry their arms. 
The barrels of their guns were so cold that they stuck to their 
hands. It was twenty-eight degrees below zero. But the 
Guard gave up their knapsacks and guns only with their lives. 
In order to save oxir lives, we had to eat the horses that fell upon 
the ice. The soldiers opened the skin with their knives, and 
took out the entrails, which they roasted on the coals, if they 
had time to make a fire ; and, if not, they ate them raw. They 
devoured the horses before they died. I also ate this food as 
long as the horses lasted. As far as Wilna we travelled by 
short stages with the Emperor. His whole staff marched along 
the sides of the road. The men of the demoralised army marched 
along like prisoners, without arms and without knapsacks. 
There was no longer any discipline or any hximan feeling for one 
another. Each man looked out for himself. Every sentiment 
of humanity was extinguished. No one would have reached 
out his hand to his father ; and that can easily be understood. 
For he who stooped down to help his fellow would not be able to 
rise again. We had to march right on, making faces to pre- 
vent our noses and ears from freezing. The men became in- 
sensible to every human feeling. No one even murmvu'ed 
against our misfortunes. The men fell, frozen stiff, all along the 
road. If, by chance, any of them came upon a bivouac of other 
unfortunate creatures who were thawing themselves, the new- 
comers pitilessly pushed them aside, and took possession of their 



THE EAGLE OF THE OLD GUARD 291 

The Eagle of the Old Guard recrossed the 
Niemen at Kovno, while Ney.was making his 
final stand, defending the gate of the town ; the 
marshal fighting musket in hand at the last, 
with less than twenty soldiers. That Eagle was 
still carried openly — the only one still so dis- 
played — carried defiantly aloft on its staff, borne 
to the last with its escort in military formation, 
in the midst of the ranks of the 400 men of the 
Old Guard who were all that were able to reach 
the frontier. 

At Bay in Northern Germany — 1813 

There were yet dark days in store for the Eagles 
after the retreat from Moscow was over. The 
tale of their misfortunes was not yet ended. 
There was yet to be the sequel to the great 
catastrophe ; further humiliations in the War 
in Germany of 1813, and the Winter Campaign 
of 1814 in Eastern France, which followed as 
the consequence and result of the overthrow in 
Russia. 

No fewer than fifteen of the Eagles that the 
devotion of their officers brought through the 
retreat from Moscow are now — making allow- 
ance for difficulties of identification, owing to 

fire. The poor creattires would then lie down to die upon the 
snow. One must have seen these horrors in order to believe 
them. . . . But it wtis at Wilna that we suffered most. The 
weather was so severe that the men could no longer endure it : 
even the ravens froze." 



292 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

defective records — among the trophies of victory 
to be seen at Berlin and Potsdam, in Vienna, and 
also at St. Petersburg. Those in Germany are 
mostly kept in the Garrison Church of Potsdam, 
suspended triumphantly above the vault in which 
lies the sarcophagus of Frederick the Great. 
They were placed there of set purpose as an act 
of retribution, as a votive offering to the manes 
of the Great Frederick ; as a Prussian rejoinder 
to Napoleon's act of wanton desecration after 
Jena. The four trophy Eagles at Vienna are 
in the Imperial Arsenal Museum there. Two 
of them are the spoils of Kulm ; displayed to- 
gether with the keys of Lyons, Langres, Troyes, 
and the fortress of Mayence, which were sur- 
rendered during the march of the Allies on Paris. 
The Russian trophy Eagles of 1813 are at St. 
Petersburg, displayed with the Eagles which fell 
into Russian hands in the retreat from Moscow. 
What the annihilation of the Grand Army in 
Russia meant for Europe, with what dramatic 
rapidity its import for the vassal states of 
Napoleon was realised and turned to account, 
is a familiar story. Prussia led the revolt at 
once, and all Northern Germany rose in arms en 
masse to commence the " War of Liberation," 
joining hands with Russia as the pursuing armies 
of the Czar crossed the frontier. Tlien Austria, 
after negotiations rendered abortive at the last 
by Napoleon's infatuated pride and overweening 
self-confidence, threw her sword into the balance 



THE EAGLES DIED HARD 293 

and turned the scale decisively against France. 
Napoleon's hastily raised conscript levies, out- 
numbered and outmanoeuvred, were defeated 
on battlefield after battlefield, and driven in 
rout across the Rhine to their final surrender 
at the gates of Paris ; and then came the abdica- 
tion of Fontainebleau. 

Yet, with all that, in those dark hours of their 
fate the Eagles died hard. The trophy-collect- 
tions of Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg 
testify to that. Only a percentage of the Eagles 
which faced their fate on the battlefield became 
spoils to the victors. Marshal Macdonald's army, 
routed by Bliicher on the Katzbach, thanks to 
the devotion of the regimental officers and 
some of their men, saved all its Eagles from 
the enemy except three. Ney's army, no less 
roughly handled at Dennewitz, managed to 
retain in like manner all its Eagles except three. 
Vandamme's army, annihilated and dispersed 
at Kulm, saved its Eagles all but two. Oudinot 
was routed at Gross Beeren, with the loss of guns 
and many prisoners ; Gerard underwent the same 
fate near Magdeburg ; Bertrand was surprised 
and defeated with heavier losses still ; but not 
one Eagle was left as spoil of these disasters 
in the hands of the victorious foe. 
\ In one battle the Eagle of Napoleon's Irish 
Legion was only just kept from being to-day 
among the trophies displayed in the Garrison 
Church of Potsdam over the tomb of Frederick 



294 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

the Great. It was immediately after Mac- 
donald's defeat on the Katzbach. The Irish 
Legion was one of the regiments in one of Mac- 
donald's divisions, that of General Puthod. 
They had had a hard fight of it, and their retreat 
was barred by the river Bober in flood. Under 
stress of the continuous attacks of the Prussians 
in ever- increasing force, the 12,000 men of 
Puthod's Division had been reduced to barely 
5,000. They had used up their last cart- 
ridges, and had been driven back to the 
river-bank, where the Prussian army closed in 
on them " in a half-moon." The Prussians 
halted for one moment until they realised that 
the troops before them had no more ammunition. 
Then, aware that they had their foe at their mercy, 
they rushed forward, cheering exultantly, to 
deliver the coup de grdce. " All of a sudden," 
describes an Irish officer, " 30,000 men ran for- 
ward on their prey, of whom none but those who 
knew how to swim could attempt to escape." 
The greater number of the French, all the same, 
jumped into the river, and took the risk of 
drowning rather than surrender. Less than 
five hundred got across the stream, and after 
that they had to wade waist-deep for half a mile 
over flooded marshes under a pitiless fire from 
the Prussian batteries. In the end only 150 
men reached dry ground alive. Among the 
survivors were just 40 men of the Irish Legion, 
with their Eagle — Colonel Ware, eight officers, 



THE IRISH EAGLE'S FIRST ESCAPE 295 

the Eagle-bearer, and thirty privates. The 
Irish remnant made their way eventually to 
Dresden, and reported themselves to Napoleon. 

That adventure, by the way, was the Irish 
Eagle's second escape from falling into an 
enemy's hands since Napoleon presented it to 
the Legion on the Field of Mars. On the first 
occasion it came within an ace of being now 
among our British trophy Eagles at Chelsea ; of, 
indeed, being the first Napoleonic Eagle to be 
brought as spoil of war to England. The Irish 
Legion was in garrison at Flushing in 1809, when 
the fortress surrendered to the British Walcheren 
Expedition. On the night before the final 
capitulation, Major Lawless of the Irish Legion 
took charge of the Eagle, and in a rowing-boat 
made a risky passage among the British ships 
of war in front of the batteries. He escaped up 
the Scheldt to Antwerp, where he delivered the 
Eagle personally to Marshal Bernadotte. Napo- 
leon sent for the major to Paris, decorated him 
for saving the Eagle, with the Cross of the Legion 
of Honour, and promoted him lieutenant- 
colonel. 

In the disaster on the Bober also, a soldier of 
the 134th of the Line saved the Eagle of another 
regiment, the 147th. The two regiments, as the 
Prussians charged down on them after their 
cartridges gave out, in desperation rushed to 
meet their assailants with the bayonet. They 
were overpowered and hurled back in confusion 



296 IN TPIE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

to the bank of the river, all intermingled in the 
melee. The Eagle-bearer of the 147th fell dead, 
shot down, and a Prussian officer made for the 
Eagle. A soldier of the 134th bayoneted the 
officer as he got to it, picked up the Eagle, and, 
seeing only more Prussians round him, flung him- 
self, still holding on to the Eagle, into the river. 
The man could not swim, and was fired at as he 
floundered in the water, but he was not hit. 
Unable to reach the other side, he somehow got 
on to a shallow patch, and, still holding fast to 
the Eagle, kept his footing there, until, to get 
away from the hail of bullets all round him, he 
again risked drowning by trying to drift down- 
stream. He managed to keep his head above 
water, and got over to a bed of rushes, fringing 
the farther bank. Creeping in there, still holding 
on closely to the Eagle, the brave fellow hid for 
six hours until dark, embedded in mud to his 
armpits most of the time. After nightfall he 
worked his way through and crawled ashore. 
Finally, after wandering across country for eight 
days, feeding on berries and what he could pick 
up, in constant peril of discovery among the 
hostile peasants and parties of Prussian dragoons 
scouring the district, the heroic soldier at length 
found his way to Dresden. There he was 
brought before Marshal Berth ier, to whom he 
delivered the Eagle. 

At the battle of the Katzbach the colonel of 
the 132nd of the Line threw away his life under 



AT THE COST OF HIS LIFE 297 

the mistaken impression that he saw the Eagle 
of his regiment captured by the enemy. He was 
short-sighted, and suddenly missed it in the 
middle of a charge. Thinking he saw the Eagle 
being carried off by a party of Prussians he rode 
straight through the enemy at them, to fall 
mortally wounded halfway, with his horse shot 
beneath him. Some of the men saw the colonel 
fall, and charged after him. They got to him 
and carried him off the field, and in the retreat 
until a place of safety was reached, where the 
survivors of the regiment had rallied. There 
the officers came round to bid farewell to their 
dying chief. The Eagle-bearer of the regiment 
was among them, and he, to the amazement of 
all, produced the Eagle from his havresac, 
broken from its staff, and held it up before the 
eyes of the dying colonel. No enemy's hand, he 
declared, had contaminated it. Finding himself 
and the Eagle, he explained, in imminent danger 
of capture, he had wrenched the Eagle off the 
staff and hidden it — his act causing the dis- 
appearance which the colonel had marked, and 
which had resulted in his fatal dash among the 
enemy. 

The 17th of the Line saved their Eagle and 
themselves after Vandamme's defeat at Kulm, 
and made their way to safety, as one of the 
officers relates, after an extraordinary series 
of adventures. They had joined Vandamme's 
army at the beginning of the first day's fighting 



298 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

— the battle lasted three days — coming in after 
a week's march from Dresden, through pouring 
rain most of the time. They numbered four 
battalions, 4^000 men in all. Vandamme was 
successful on the first two days and the 17th 
by themselves routed an Austrian regiment 
and captured a gun. On the evening of the 
second day the French advanced again, driving 
the enemy before them into the valley of Kulm. 
They bivouacked on the ground they had won, 
anticipating a final triumph on the morrow. 
But during that night two Russian and Prussian 
army corps reinforced the Austrian columns 
unknown to the French. 

One of the officers of the 17th, Major Fantin 
des Odoards, during the night had his suspicions 
aroused about the enemy, and made a discovery ; 
but Vandamme would not listen to him. 

He was unable to sleep, says Major Fantin, 
and, learning from a patrol that mysterious 
sounds were being heard in the direction in 
which the Austrians had retreated, he left the 
bivouac and went out alone beyond the out- 
posts, to creep in the dark towards the Austrian 
watch-fires. At times, as he crawled forward, 
describes the major, he lay flat and listened with 
his ear to the ground. In the end he felt certain 
that he heard the tramp and stir of a vast number 
of men, and also the rumble of artillery wheels 
moving across the front. Apparently, from the 
direction the unseen troops were taking, they were 



MEMMED In on EVERY SIDE 29d 

marching to cut off the retreat of the army from 
Dresden, Napoleon's base of operations through- 
out the campaign. 

Major Fantin returned to the bivouac and 
went at once to report to the general, finding 
him asleep. He aroused Vandamme and told 
what he had heard and suspected ; only, however, 
to be rebuffed and rudely answered that he was 
quite mistaken. Vandamme, a surly and ill- 
conditioned boor to deal with at all times, 
awoke in a vile temper. " You are a fool ! " 
was what he said in reply. '* If the enemy are 
on the move at all, they are in retreat, trying 
to escape me. To-morrow will see them flying, 
or my prisoners." With that Vandamme ter- 
minated the interview, and turned over and 
went to sleep again. 

He found out his mistake all too soon. Day- 
light disclosed dense swarms of Austrians, Prus- 
sians, and Russians in front of Vandamme, on 
his flanks, and closing on his rear ; outnumber- 
ing him nearty four to one. It was a desperate 
position, for the only road by which Vandamme 
might retreat was held by the enemy. Little 
time was left to him to deliberate what to do. 
He was in the act of forming up his columns 
in a mass to try to fight his way through, when 
the enemy attacked in overpowering force. 
Before noon that day, out of 30,000 men, 10,000 
had fallen. Seven thousand more were wounded 
or prisoners. The rest were fugitives, flying 



300 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

for shelter and hiding-places in the woods 
round the battlefield. All the French guns 
and baggage had been taken, and Vandamme 
himself was a prisoner, together with many 
officers of rank. The " annals of modern war- 
fare record few instances of defeat more complete 
than that of Vandamme at Kulm." 

The only regiment that kept its order was 
the 17th, and it before the crisis had lost 
heavily. Its colonel and two of the chefs de 
hataillon had been killed ; the two others were 
wounded. Only some 1,700 of the 4,000 men 
remained. It rested with Major Fantin, as 
senior officer, to save those that were left and 
the Eagle. 

The 17th were on the extreme right of the 
battle, where they had been posted as support 
to Vandamme's artillery. They held their 
ground as long as possible, but the enemy closed 
in on them, overlapping them on both flanks, 
and then stormed and captured the guns. The 
17th were isolated and in imminent peril — 
surrender or destruction were the only alterna- 
tives before them. 

Looking round, the major, as he describes, 
marked a wooded hill some little way off, and 
decided to make for that. There was just time 
to get away before the enemy closed in on 
them. He sent off all his tirailleurs, about 
400 men, to skirmish and hold in check the 
advancing Austrians. As they went off he 



*'EN HAUT L'AIGLE!'' 301 

shouted to the rest : " En haut I'Aigle ! 
Ralliement au drapeau ! " (" Display the Eagle ! 
All rally to the standard!") The men of the 
regiment formed round him quickly, and the 
major pointed out the wooded hill to them with 
his sword. " All of you disperse at once," he 
told them, " and make your way there as quickly 
as you can. You will find the Eagle of the regi- 
ment there, and me with it ! " The 17th broke 
up and scattered, and, under the protection of 
the skirmishers, aided by the opportune mist 
which hung low over the ground after the heavy 
rains of the past week, they made off in groups 
in the direction pointed out. All just got past 
the enemy in time. Major Fantin and two 
officers accompanying the Eagle. 

An hour later, " nos debris, ^^ as the major 
puts it, were straggling up the hill, where they 
again rallied round the Eagle. The skirmishers, 
cleverly withdrawn at the right moment, evaded 
the enemy also, and most of them joined their 
comrades on the hill, where all silently drew 
together. They then moved off, to halt for 
concealment in a wooded glade behind. They 
stayed there, keeping quiet and lying down 
beside their arms, for several hours ; off the 
track of the pursuit, and undiscovered by the 
enemy. " We were all very hungry and with- 
out anything but what cartridges we had still 
left." 

At nightfall they moved away in the direction 



302 IN THiE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

in which Dresden was judged to be, without 
having a single map or anything to guide them. 
They marched all night, mostly by a forest road, 
and keeping their direction by means of occa- 
sional glimpses of the stars seen through rifts 
in the cloudy sky overhead. More than once 
they had to halt as the enemy were heard on 
the move not far off. They groped their way 
forward with extreme caution, not a light being 
struck, and the necessary words of command 
being spoken in an undertone, until after mid- 
night. Then they suddenly came into the 
open round a bend of the road, and discovered, 
not half a mile off in front, the numerous watch- 
fires of a large body of troops. " The column 
halted at the sight like one man and stood in 
absolute silence. Who were those in front of 
us ? Friends or the enemy ? " 

Two scouts were sent forward to try to find 
out. They were away for half an hour ; an 
interval of intense suspense and anxiety to the 
others. At the end of the time the two scouts 
came rushing back. They brought unexpectedly 
good news. It was a French bivouac : that of 
the 14th Army Corps — Marshal St. Cyr's. So 
the 17th and their Eagle were saved. 

Other Eagles that got away from the rout at 
Kulm and rejoined the army owed their safety 
to the determination of small groups of officers 
and men who cut their way through the enemy. 
" Officers fought with their swords, privates 



THE EAGLE-TROPHIES OF LEIPSIC 303 

with their bayonets and the butts of their 
muskets : and as the struggle was to escape 
and not to destroy, a push and wrestle, or a blow, 
which might suffice to throw the individual 
struck out of the way of the striker, prevented 
in many instances the more deadly thrust." 
Finally, as the 17th had done, they found 
shelter among the woods and ravines of the neigh- 
bourhood, and lay low there until the enemy 
had moved off towards Toplitz, whereupon they 
made their way to Dresden. The cavalry saved 
their Eagles by cutting their way through the 
enemy. They suffered heavy losses, but suc- 
ceeded in their effort. Their commander, 
General Corbineau, " presented himself, wounded 
and covered with blood, before Napoleon " ; it 
was his arrival that announced the disaster. 
The Eagles of the 33rd and the 106th of the 
Line taken at Kulm are at Vienna. 

The three days of battle at Leipsic, between 
October 16 and 19, 1813, cost Napoleon 60,000 
men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, and 300 
guns ; but not more than 6 Eagles were among 
the trophies of battalion- flags and squadron- 
colours taken or found on the field, now at 
Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. 

One Eagle was lost during the first day's 
fighting at Leipsic — taken on the 16th by 
Bliicher from Ney's corps ; but no others were 
lost until the end. The 80,000 men who were 
able to make good their retreat with Napoleon 
21 



304 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

across the bridge over the Elster before it was 
prematurely blown up, through a non-commis- 
sioned officer's blunder, carried their Eagles 
with them. What colour-trophies came into 
the possession of the Allies were taken amid 
the final scenes of carnage ; from cut-off battalions 
of the three divisions left behind on the right 
bank of the river, victims of the destruction of 
the bridge. They were mostly captured in the 
ferocious hand-to-hand fighting which marked 
the closing phase of the battle in the suburbs of 
Leipsic. The French defended themselves there 
to the last with the courage of despair among 
the fortified villas and loopholed garden walls. 
" Pressed upon by superior numbers, and 
fighting, now in the streets, now in the houses, 
now through gardens or other enclosures, the 
single end which they could accomplish or which 
in point of fact they seemed to desire, was that 
they might sell their lives at the dearest rate 
possible." Two at least of the Eagles now at 
Berlin were hastily buried in gardens during 
the last stand, and were dug up there later when 
the ground was being turned over. 

Forced to give back before their ever-increasing 
enemies, not a few of the French " preferred 
death to captivity, and fought to the last. These, 
retiring through by-lanes and covered passages, 
made their way to the river, some where the 
ruins of the bridge covered its banks, some above 
and others below that point, and, plunging into 



f 



AMIDST THE ROUT AT LEIPSIC 305 

the deep water, endeavoured to gain the opposite 
shore by swimming, an attempt in which com- 
paratively few succeeded." 

The three doomed divisions of Lauriston, 
Regnier, and Poniatowski, who were cut off by 
the blowing up of the bridge, had, as it happened, 
not many Eagles among them to lose. They 
were largely made up of newly raised conscript 
regiments to whom Napoleon had not yet awarded 
Eagles ; regiments not yet entitled to carry 
Eagles, according to the later regulations that 
Napoleon had laid down. Only four of the newly 
raised regiments altogether, so far during the 
campaign in Germany, had qualified for the 
honour. They had received their Eagles with 
the customary ceremony at the hands of Napo- 
leon : three of them on October 15, the day 
before the battle of Leipsic opened. The fourth 
had received its Eagle at Dresden a month 
earlier. Two of these four Eagles only were lost 
to the enemy at Leipsic. 

The Eagle-bearers of four or five other regi- 
ments among those cut off by the bridge disaster 
tried to swim across the Elster with their Eagles. 
Their fate is unknown ; probably they were 
drowned in the attempt. Other Eagle-bearers, 
before surrendering, were seen to fling their 
Eagles into the river to sink there. 

How one Eagle, during the battle on the 18th, 
was momentarily lost, and then regained by a 
splendid act of valour, is told by Caulaincourt, 



306 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

who was on Napoleon's staff, and witnessed the 
gallant deed that won the Eagle back. In the 
midst of the fighting, a number of Saxon regiments 
abandoned Napoleon's cause and went over en 
masse to the enemy. To signalise their defection 
they turned on the nearest French regiment and 
mobbed it ; attacking it at close quarters with 
the bayonet. Thrown into confusion by the 
unexpected onslaught, the French were for the 
moment broken and forced back, whereupon the 
Saxons, making for the Eagle, got possession of 
it. "A young officer of Hussars," relates Cau- 
laincourt, " whose name I forget, rushed headlong 
into the enemies' ranks. In the charge some of 
the miserable renegades had carried off one of 
our Eagles. The gallant young officer rescued it, 
but at the cost of his life. He threw the Eagle 
at the Emperor's feet, and then he himself fell, 
mortally wounded and bathed in blood. The 
Emperor was deeply moved. ' With such men,' 
he exclaimed, ' what resources does not France 
possess ! ' " 

The regiments left by Napoleon to garrison 
the fortresses in Germany, at Stettin, at Magde- 
burg, Torgau, Dantzic, and elsewhere, previous 
to surrendering took steps to prevent their 
Eagles falling into the hands of their adversaries. 
In every case they destroyed them, smashing the 
Eagles into small fragments, which were either 
distributed among officers and men, or else 
thrown into the ditch of the fortress. In more 



KEPT FROM THE HANDS OF THE FOE 307 

than one case they melted the Eagles down, and 
broke up and buried the metal, while the flags 
were burned. 

At Dresden, where Marshal St. Cyr had to 
surrender, a month after Leipsie, the terms 
granted by the Austrian general conducting the 
siege allowed the troops to return to France 
with their arms, their baggage, and their Eagles, 
seven in number. Superior authority, however, 
cancelled the privilege. The garrison had already 
started on their march when, to their utter con- 
sternation, the capitulation was abruptly annulled 
by the Austrian Generalissimo, Schwartzenberg, 
with the result that the hapless troops were 
compelled to yield themselves prisoners at dis- 
cretion. The soldiers were defenceless and could 
only submit to their hard fate. They did not, 
however, let their seven Eagles pass into the 
enemy's hands. Five of the seven were broken 
up, and the flags torn to pieces and divided among 
the regiments. Two of the Eagles, those of the 
25th of the Line and the 85th, were concealed 
intact by two officers, who kept them from dis- 
covery for months, while they were prisoners in 
Hungary. After the Peace, in the following 
year, they brought them back to France — to 
meet there the doom that awaited all the Eagles 
of Napoleon of which the officials of the Bourbon 
regime got possession. 

One memento of the Winter Campaign in 
Eastern France is now at the Invalides — the 



308 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

Eagle of the 5th of the Line. It was found in 
the river Aube at Arcis after the battle there, 
which, in its result, decided the fate of Napoleon ; 
its outcome being the immediate march of the 
Allied armies on Paris. The 5th was one of the 
regiments of the rearguard column, under Oudi- 
not, half of which was drowned in the river in 
trying to get across at night, after stubbornly 
holding out in the town all the afternoon in 
order to enable Napoleon to cross the river in 
safety. The 5th was one of the regiments that 
sacrificed themselves. Its Eagle-bearer was 
among the drowned, and his Eagle sank with him. 
It remained in the bed of the stream until long 
afterwards, when it was accidentally discovered, 
and fished up. 

The 132nd of the Line of the modern army of 
France commemorates on its flag a feat of arms 
done under the Eagle of the old 132nd of Napo- 
leon's Army, after having been saved from the 
Prussians at the Katzbach, and again at Leipsic. 
It was in one of the fights in the closing campaign 
in Eastern France. The proud legend inscribed 
in golden letters, " Rosny, 1814 : Un contre 
huit," commemorates how the regiment, single- 
handed, held at bay and beat off an enemy eight 
times its force, saving itself for the third time, 
and its Eagle. 

The surviving Eagles of the war, the last 
to face the enemy in the north of those presented 
on the Field of Mars, paid their last salute to the 



THE GRAND ARMY'S LAST PARADE 309 

War Lord at Napoleon's final review of the 
remnants of the Grand Army at Rheims on 
March 15, 1814. 

A pitiful, a moving, sight was that hapless 
military spectacle : the closing parade before 
Napoleon of his last remaining soldiers. 

This is how Alison describes it : " How dif- 
ferent from the splendid military spectacles of the 
Tuileres or Chammartin, which had so often 
dazzled his sight with the pomp of apparently 
irresistible power ! Wasted away to half the 
numbers which they possessed when they crossed 
the Marne a fortnight before, the greater part of 
the regiments exhibited only the skeletons of 
military array. In some, more officers than 
privates were to be seen in the ranks ; in all, 
the appearance of the troops, the haggard air 
of the men, their worn-out uniforms, and the 
strange motley of which they were composed, 
bespoke the total exhaustion of the Empire. 
It was evident to all that Napoleon was expend- 
ing his last resources. Besides the veterans of 
the Guard — the iron men whom nothing could 
daunt, but whose tattered garments and soiled 
accoutrements bespoke the dreadful fatigue to 
which they had been subjected — were to be 
seen young conscripts, but recently torn from the 
embraces of maternal love, and whose wan 
visages and faltering steps told but too clearly 
that they were unequal to the weight of the arms 
they bore. The gaunt figures and woeful aspect 



810 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

of the horses, the broken carriages and blackened 
mouths of the guns, the crazy and fractured 
artillery wagons which defiled past, the general 
confusion of arms, battalions, and uniforms, 
even in the best appointed corps, spoke of the 
mere remains of the vast military army which 
had so long stood triumphant against the world 
in arms. The soldiers exhibited none of their 
ancient enthusiasm as they defiled past the 
Emperor ; silent and sad they took their way 
before him : the stern realities of war had chased 
away its enthusiastic ardour. All felt that in 
this dreadful contest they themselves would 
perish, happy if they had not previously wit- 
nessed the degradation of France ! " ^ 

What is indeed the most interesting of all the 
Eagles, the most famous battle-standard in the 
world, which for a time was at the Invalides, is 
at present preserved in private hands in Paris — 
the Eagle of Napoleon's Old Guard, the Eagle 
of the " Adieu of Fontainebleau." It is treasured 
with devoted care in the family of the officer who 
commanded the Grenadiers of the Guard in the 
retreat from Moscow, at Fontainebteau, and at 

^ One of those who presented arms before Napoleon at the 
Rheims review died, just twenty years ago, as the last French 
survivor of Trafalgar — Andr6 Manuel Cartigny. At Trafalgar 
he had been a powder-boy on board the celebrated Redoutable, 
from the mizen-top of which the bullet was fired which killed 
Nelson. He paraded at Rheims among the remnant of survivors 
of Napoleon's last battalion left of the Seamen of the Guard, 
and was present a month later at the historic farewell at Fontaine- 
bleau. 



THE OLD GUARD AT FONTAINEBLEAU 811 

Waterloo — General Petit. It is kept in the house, 
in Paris, in which the old general died, in the 
room he used as his salon. General Petit refused 
to be parted from the Eagle of his regiment 
during his lifetime ; he kept it with him where- 
ever he went, always in his personal care. It 
was at the Invalides while General Petit was in 
residence there as Governor of the Hospital. 

On that never-to-be-forgotten April forenoon 
of 1814, in the Court of the \^Tiite Horse of the 
Chateau of Fontainebleau, Napoleon embraced 
the standard, and taking the Eagle in his hands, 
kissed it in front of the veteran Grenadiers of 
the Old Guard. His travelling carriage, to con- 
vey the fallen Emperor on the first stage of his 
journey to Elba, was in waiting, close by, ready 
to start. Twelve hundred Grenadiers of the 
Guard stood with presented arms all round the 
courtyard ; drawn up in a great hollow square 
as a guard of honour to render to the master 
they adored the parting salute. 

Napoleon passed slowly round the square 
and inspected the ranks, man by man, looking 
intently into the scarred and war-worn, weather- 
beaten old faces, each one of which was familiar 
to him. Their station on every battlefield 
had been close at hand to where he took up his 
post. Night after night, in every campaign 
from Austerlitz to those last dreadful weeks, 
he had slept in their midst ; his tent always 
pitched in the centre of the camp of the Imperial 



312 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

Guard. That had been Napoleon's invariable 
custom in war. They had shared with him that 
last forlorn-hope march to save Paris, until, 
completely worn out and footsore, exhausted 
nature forbade their attempting to go farther. 
With tears streaming from their eyes the old 
soldiers, before whose bayonets in the charge 
no Continental foe had ever stood, mutely re- 
turned Napoleon's last wistful, pathetic look of 
farewell. 

He addressed a few touching words to them, 
standing in the centre of the square. Next he 
turned to General Petit, near at hand, and 
before them he took the general in his arms, 
as representing all, and kissed him on the cheek. 
" I cannot embrace you all," exclaimed Napoleon 
in a voice broken with emotion, yet which all 
could hear distinctly, " so I embrace your 
General ! " Then he motioned to the Porte- 
Aigle, standing all the while before him, with 
the Eagle held in the attitude of salute. 

" Bring me the Eagle," he said, " that I may 
embrace it also ! " " Que m'apporte I'Aigle, 
que je I'embrasse aussi ! " were Napoleon's 
words. 

The Porte-Aigle advanced and again inclined 
the Eagle forward to the Emperor. Napoleon 
took hold of it, embraced and kissed it three 
times, tears in his eyes, and displaying the 
deepest emotion. 

''Ah, ciiere Aigle," he exclaimed, "que les 



ASHES MINGLED WITH WINE 313 

baisers que je te donne retentissent dans la 
posterite." 

The Eagle-bearer then stepped back a pace. 

" Adieu, mes enfants ! Adieu, mes braves ! 
Entourez moi encore une fois ! " were Napo- 
leon's closing words as the historic scene 
terminated. 

The old soldiers all stood utterly broken 
down, weeping bitter tears, overcome with 
grief, as Napoleon made his way to the carri- 
age ; the members of the Household bowing 
low as he passed, and kissing his hand, were all 
also in tears. 

Finally, amid a mournful cry of " Vive 
I'Empereur ! " Napoleon drove away. 

As soon as Napoleon's carriage was beyond 
the precincts, the Grenadiers of the Guard 
solemnly lowered the Imperial Standard, fly- 
ing above the Chateau. There, in the court- 
yard, they burned it. Then, mixing the ashes 
in a barrel of wine that was brought out, they 
handed round the liquor in bowls and drank off 
the draught, pledging Napoleon with cries of 
" Vive I'Empereur ! " So it is related by one 
who was an eye-witness and a partaker ; one 
of the officers of the Old Guard. 

Kept safely in concealment for ten months by 
General Petit, during the Bourbon Restoration 
period in 1814, the Eagle of the Old Guard 
appeared once more after the return from Elba. 
It faced the enemy for the last time at Waterloo. 



314 IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER 

Something of that will be said further on. 
General Petit kept close beside it all through the 
retreat, during that night of horror after Water- 
loo ; a faithful band of devoted veterans accom- 
panying him and surrounding the Eagle. So it 
made its final return to France, to be preserved 
for the rest of his life by the man who, above 
all others, had most right to be custodian of 
the Eagle of the Old Guard. 

The Bourbon War Minister ordered it to be 
given up, to be burned at the artillery depot 
at Vincennes with the other Eagles that the 
Restoration officials were able to get hold of. 
General Petit flatly and indignantly refused 
to part with the Eagle of the Old Guard. He 
was able, as before, to conceal it successfully, 
in spite of every effort to discover its where- 
abouts, until after the Revolution of 1830. 
Then, at the last, it was safe. 

Faded and frayed away in parts, the gold 
embroidery on it dulled and tarnished from the 
lapse of years, and torn here and there round the 
jagged bullet-holes in the silk, is now, in its old 
age, the Flag of the Old Guard. As it was at 
first — as it was when it made its debut at the 
opening of its career, on that December after- 
noon on the Field of Mars — the flag is of rich 
crimson silk, fringed with gold, sprinkled over 
on both sides with golden bees, and with, at the 
corners, encircled in golden laurel-wreaths, the 
Imperial cypher, the letter " N," In shape 



THE FLAG OF THE OLD GUARD 315 

it was — and of course is still — almost a square : 
a metre deep, vertically, on the staff, and some 
half-dozen inches more than that lengthwise, 
horizontally, in the fly. On one side, in the 
centre, the Napoleonic Eagle is displayed, a 
gold embroidered Eagle poised on a thunder- 
bolt. Inscribed round the Eagle in letters of 
gold is the legend : 

"GARDE IMPERIALS 

L'Empebeub Napoleon 

Air 1=» REGIMENT DES 

Gbenadiers a Pied." 

On the other side are inscribed these fifteen 
names of Napoleon's great days in war, also 
in golden letters : " Marengo ; Ulm ; Austerlitz ; 
Jena ; Berlin ; Eylau ; Friedland ; Madrid ; 
Eckmiihl ; Essling ; Wagram ; Vienna ; Smo- 
lensk ; Moskowa ; Moscow." 



CHAPTER XI 

THAT TERRIBLE MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

The Battalion Eagles of 1804, those of the 
second and third battalions withdrawn by the 
decree of 1808, together with the Light Cavalry 
(Hussar, Chasseur, and Dragoon) Eagles recalled 
in the autumn of 1805, and a number of Light 
Infantry Eagles returned to the Ministry of War 
at the end of 1807, perished in the flames 
of the great holocaust of trophy-flags at the 
Invalides on the night of March 30, 1814, the 
night of the surrender of Paris to the Allies. 

It was on that tragic Wednesday night that 
the great sacrifice was made, amid the bowed 
and weeping old soldiers of France, the veterans 
of a hundred battlefields, on the most terrible 
and mournful occasion in the wide-ranging annals 
of the great institution which the Grand 
Monarque, in the full pride of his power, at the 
topmost pinnacle of his renown, founded and 
opened in person with grandiose martial pomp 
and State display. All was over for France on 
that night — 

" Around a slaughtered army lay, 
No more to conquer and to bleed : 
The power and glory of the war 
Had passed to the victorious Czar." 
316 



NAPOLEON WITHIN TWELVE MILES 817 

The two marshals charged with the defence 
of Paris, Marmont and Mortier, had on that 
afternoon placed the submission of the capital 
in the hands of Alexander of Russia on the 
heights of Montmartre, whence, and from the 
Buttes Chaumont and the other northern heights 
from right to left, 300 loaded cannon pointed 
threateningly down over the vanquished and 
panic-stricken city, supported by the bayo- 
nets and sabres of 120,000 men, Russians and 
Prussians, Bavarians, Wiirtemburgers, and Aus- 
trians, flushed and exultant in their hour of 
supreme triumph, the soldiers of all the nations 
of the Continent at war with Napoleon. 

It was at ten o'clock on that fateful night for 
France that the great destruction of trophies at 
the Invalides took place. Napoleon had set 
his last stake, had attempted his desperate last 
manoeuvre, and had failed. He had been foiled 
and baffled when within reach almost of his goal. 
At that very hour indeed, only twelve miles 
away, he had just been stopped in his wild 
midnight gallop, his final forlorn-hope effort to 
reach the capital, by the news that all hope was 
past, that the worst had happened, that Paris 
had fallen. 

Only forty-eight hours before, on Monday nigtit, 
at Saint-Dizier, a small town 170 miles away, 
had Napoleon suddenly realised the gravity 
of the catastrophe impending over Paris. He 
was at that moment in the act of dealing the 



818 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALTDES 

Allies a counter- stroke which he confidently 
believed would save the situation and bring the 
enemy's advance to a general stand. Just a 
week before, he had abruptly turned back in 
his retreat towards the capital and had boldly 
started to march across the rear of the Allies 
in the direction of the Rhine. He would sever 
their communications ; he would cut the enemy 
off from their base. Calling out the levee en 
masse of the peasantry all over Eastern France, 
and at the same time rallying to him the garri- 
sons of the French fortresses in Alsace and 
Lorraine, with 100,000 men at his disposal, 
led by Ney, Macdonald, Victor, and Oudinot, 
while two other marshals, Marmont and Mortier, 
held the enemy at bay in front of Paris, he was 
looking forward to checkmate the Allies at the 
last moment and paralyse their advance on the 
capital. It was a daring and masterly project ; 
but the Fortune of War was against Napoleon. 
He had sent word of his plans to Marie Louise 
at the Tuileries, together with instructions to his 
brother Joseph, Governor of Paris, but on the 
way a Cossack patrol captured the bearer of the 
vitally important documents. Napoleon's de- 
spatch for once was not in cypher, and its full 
import was apparent instantly. It was carried 
to the Czar Alexander, and forthwith laid before 
a hastily convened Russian council of war. 
Another letter, taken at the same time, laid 
bare the critical condition of affairs inside 



NAPOLEON^S BLANK DISMAY 319 

Paris itself ; describing how all was in con- 
fusion there, and that treachery to the cause 
of the Empire was at work within the city. The 
council of war decided to pay no heed to Napo- 
leon's counter- stroke, and, instead, to march 
at once on Paris in full force. Marmont and 
Mortier, it was known, could barely muster 
6,000 regulars. With Biiicher's Prussians, at 
that moment on the point of joining them, the 
Allies could bring into line not far short of 
150,000 men. This final plan was agreed to 
on the afternoon of Friday, March 24, and the 
general advance began at once. 

Napoleon knew nothing of what was happening 
until late on the night of the 27th, the following 
Monday. Then he was suddenly made aware 
of the full position. " Nothing," exclaimed the 
doomed Emperor in blank dismay, " but a 
thunderbolt can save us now." The Allies 
then had not turned back ! The enemy nearest 
him, whom he had planned to attack next day, 
believing them to be the Russian main army, 
was only — he discovered at the last moment — 
a cavalry division, sent back to delude him and 
prevent his finding out what was really going 
on. And the troops advancing on Paris were 
already three clear days ahead of him ! Napo- 
leon counter-marched his whole force at once to 
hasten to the rescue of the capital. They would 
take the route by Sens, Troyes, and Fontaine- 
bleau, making a sweep to keep clear of the 
22 



320 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

enemy's columns, and approach Paris by the 
south bank of the Seine. It was a long march 
of fully 180 miles, but there was no other 
way open. Marmont and Mortier, to whom 
the news of Napoleon's intended approach was 
sent off immediately, must manage to hold out 
in front of the city on the north bank until the 
Emperor arrived. 

Fresh news, however, and yet more serious, 
as to the imminence of the grave peril threatening 
Paris, reached Napoleon during Tuesday night. 
Leaving the army to follow, he pressed forward 
ahead of the troops by himself in his travelling- 
carriage, escorted only by the Old Guard. They 
hurried forward with feverish eagerness all that 
night and the next day, the men of the Guard 
panting along at the double in their effort to 
keep up. With hardly a halt, they struggled 
along, famishing — most of the men had tasted 
no cooked food for the past five days — shoeless 
most of them, plodding and splashing barefoot 
through the mud, ankle deep ; under a pitiless 
downpour of rain all the time. By Wednesday 
evening, the 30th, they had reached Troyes, after 
a forty miles march without a stop. There, 
still worse news reached Napoleon. Marmont 
and Mortier had been disastrously defeated at 
Meaux, and in consequence their defence of the 
northern heights outside the city was all but 
hopeless. 

Napoleon, on that, abandoned his travelling- 



AT FULL GALLOP FOR PARIS 321 

carriage for a light post-chaise, which set off at 
a gallop. He must now risk a ride practically 
unattended, in the desperate hope of being 
able to evade hostile patrols and get by stealth 
into the city. Once there, he would himself 
take charge of the defence. The men of the 
Old Guard were left behind at Troyes. They 
were worn out and unable, from sheer exhaustion, 
to go a step farther. Only a troop of Cuiras- 
siers rode with the post-chaise, and most of these 
had to give up and drop back as the chaise raced 
forward. Napoleon himself from time to time 
calling from the windows to the postillions to 
keep on flogging the horses and go faster and 
faster. At every stopping-place to change horses 
the Emperor sent off a courier to tell Paris to 
hold out ; and at each post-house he received 
still more alarming messages from the city. Now 
he heard that the Empress and his little son had 
had to fly from Paris. Then he learned that the 
whole city was in a state of complete panic, with 
affrighted peasants from all round crowding in ; 
the shops and banks all shut ; the theatres closed, 
a thing that had not happened even at the 
height of the Reign of Terror ; everywhere chaos 
and hopeless despair. After that came the news 
that the enemy were advancing so fast that 
they were expected at any moment before the 
City barriers. 

At ten o'clock Napoleon arrived at the village 
of Fromenteau, near the Fountains of Juvisy, 



322 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

twelve and a half miles from Paris. The post- 
chaise had to stop there again for a relay of 
fresh horses. As it drew up, a party of soldiers 
passed by, coming from the direction of the 
capital. Not knowing who was in the chaise, 
some of them shouted out to the occupants. 
Napoleon, and Caulaincourt, who had been riding 
with the Emperor : " Paris has surrendered ! " 

The dread news struck Napoleon like a bullet 
between the eyes. "It is impossible ! The 
men are mad 1 " he hissed out, gripping at the 
cushions of his seat. Then he turned to his 
companion: "Find an officer and bring him 
to me ! " 

One rode up, as it happened, at that moment, 
a General Belliard. Napoleon questioned him 
eagerly, and he gave the Emperor sufficient 
details to leave no doubt of what had befallen. 
Great drops of sweat stood on Napoleon's fore- 
head. He turned, quivering with excitement, 
to Caulaincourt. " Do you hear that ? " he 
ejaculated hoarsely, fixing a gaze on his com- 
panion under the light of the lamps, the bare 
memory of which made Caulaincourt shudder 
ever after to his dying day. 

They left the chaise, and looking across the 
Seine Napoleon saw to the north and east, in 
the direction of Villeneuve Saint-Georges, the glare 
of the enemy's watch-fires. Marshal Berthier 
now came up in a second post-chaise which had 
been following the Emperor's. Speaking ex- 



"MISERABLE WRETCHES!" 323 

citedly, Napoleon declared that he would go 
on to Paris. He set off walking rapidly along 
the road in the dark, leaving the horses to be 
put to and the post-chaise to pick him up. 
Berthier and Caulaincourt attended him, and 
General Belliard and some dragoons followed 
at a few paces behind. Napoleon rejected 
every remonstrance and refused to turn back. 
" I asked them," exclaimed Napoleon, talking 
half to himself, half to his companions, *' to hold 
out for only twenty-four hours ! Miserable 
wretches ! Marmont swore that he would be 
cut to pieces rather than yield ! And Joseph 
ran away : my own brother ! To surrender the 
capital to the enemy : what poltroons ! " So 
he went on in a breathless torrent of words. 
He added finally : " They have capitulated : 
betrayed their country ; betra,yed their Em- 
peror ; degraded France ! It is too terrible ! 
Every one has lost his head ! When I am not 
there they do nothing but add blunder to 
blunder." 

But to go on, with Paris in the hands of an 
army of 150,000 men, was out of the question. 
Napoleon had to bow to the inevitable. He 
at length yielded to the protests of the others. 
He stopped beside the Fountains of Juvisy. 
** He sat down on the parapet of one of the 
fountains," described Labedoyere, an eye-witness, 
*' and remained above a quarter of an hour 
with his head resting on his hands, lost in the 



324 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

most painful reflections." Then he rose, went 
back to the post-chaise, and, telling General 
Belliard to rally all the men he could at Essonne, 
set off to drive to Fontainebleau. He reached 
there at six next morning. 

Between ten o'clock on Wednesday night and 
six o'clock on Thursday morning the tragedy 
at the Invalides was enacted. Its opening scene 
took place just as Napoleon's post-chaise was 
drawing up in the village of Fromenteau. Its 
final scene took place just as the post-chaise was 
entering the courtyard of Fontainebleau. 

The Capitulation of Paris was signed before 
the Barrier of La Villette at five in the afternoon. 
Its first article laid down that the French army 
must evacuate Paris within twelve hours : before 
five o'clock next morning. The last clause re- 
commended the city to the mercy of the Allied 
Sovereigns, and of the Czar Alexander in par- 
ticular. 

All day long the booming of cannon and rattle 
of musketry had dinned in the ears of the 
trembling and terrified Parisians, ever steadily 
drawing nearer. The marshals, Marmont and 
Mortier, had made their last stand, and, resist- 
ing desperately to the last, in a struggle in which 
the Allies lost two to every one of the defenders, 
so ferocious was the contest, had been beaten 
back into the city. They carried back with 
them, so gallantly had they counter-attacked 
at one point, the standard of the Second Squad- 



BEYOND ALL HOPE NOW 325 

ron of the Russian Garde du Corps — now a 
trophy in the present collection at the Invalides. 

The outnumbered and exhausted troops could 
make no further fight, although, to the end, 
many of the soldiers were for holding out to the 
last cartridge. The Generate had beaten to arms 
at two in the morning ; at six, with sunrise, the 
enemy's guns opened fire ; from then until late 
in the afternoon the fighting had gone on in- 
cessantly. 

All was over by four o'clock. From east to 
west, from Charenton and Belleville, right round 
to Neuilly, the Allies, the Russians, Bliicher's 
Prussians, and the Austrians, had captured 
every position capable of defence, one after the 
other, by sheer weight of numbers, and had 
carried at the point of the bayonet every place 
of vantage held by the French. Woronzeff and 
the Prince of Wiirtemburg had stormed Romain- 
ville, La Villette, and La Chapelle. Langeron 
and the Russian Imperial Guard were masters 
of the heights of Montmartre and the Buttes 
Chaumont, looking down directly on Paris. 
Eighty-six guns had been taken from the 
marshals since the morning ; nearly six thousand 
soldiers and National Guards had fallen, killed 
or wounded, facing the foe. A six-miles long 
line of batteries and battalions on the side of the 
Allies had closed in to within short musket 
range of the Paris barriers. Already the Rus- 
sian cannon were opening fire on the city, and 



326 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

their shells were bursting over the central streets 
of Paris ; falling, some in the Chaussee d'Antin 
and on the Boulevard des Italiens. 

At four o'clock Marmont, who had been the 
soul of the defence, fighting, now on horseback, 
now on foot, using his sword at times — " the 
marshal was seen everywhere in the thickest of 
the fight, a dozen or more soldiers were bayoneted 
at his side, and his hat was riddled with bullets " 
— at four o'clock Marmont repassed within the 
barriers to announce that further defence was 
impossible. He was scarcely recognisable, we 
are told — '* he had a beard of eight days' growth ; 
the great-coat which covered his uniform was in 
tatters ; from head to foot he was blackened with 
powder-smoke." Then had to be done the only 
thing that was left to do. Marmont and Mortier 
held a hasty conference, and after it a trumpeter 
and an aide de camp carrying a white flag rode 
out through the firing line to the nearest advanced 
post of the Allies. The officer was taken before 
the Czar Alexander on the plateau of Chaumont, 
and Paris surrendered. The last sounds that 
were heard on the French side as the firing 
ceased came from a battalion of the Imperial 
Guard which had been serving under Marmont, 
from a scanty remnant of veterans stubbornly 
resisting at bay to the last — shouts of " Vive 
I'Empereur ! " 

The old pensioners of the Invalides manfully 
did their duty, and bore their part in the defence 



THE FLAG OF THE POLYTECHNIC 827 

all day, as well as they were able. All who 
could carry a musket had gone out to the bar- 
riers ; others did their best by helping to bring 
up ammunition. Most of them fought at the 
Barriere du Trone on the Vincennes road, assist- 
ing the brave lads of the Polytechnic School to 
hold the post and man a battery of eight-and- 
twenty cannon in front of the barrier ; until a 
headlong charge of Russian cavalry, Pahlen's 
dragoons with some Cossacks, swooped down 
from the flank, annihilating the devoted band of 
gunners. Those of the boys who were left, 
however, saved the school flag, presented to the 
Polytechnic just ten years before by the Em- 
peror with his own hand, on the Day of the 
Eagles on the Field of Mars. With the In- 
valides' veterans and some of the National 
Guards, the survivors held the barrier through- 
out the day to the end, beating back repeated 
attempts of the Russians to storm the gate. 
The lads, finally, after learning that Marmont 
had capitulated, made their way back to the 
school, and there burned their precious standard 
to save it from falling into the enemy's hands. 
Those who were left of the veterans hastened 
back to the Invalides at the same time, over- 
come with anxiety to learn what was to happen 
to their own priceless treasures within the 
Hospital, the trophy flags. There were at the 
Invalides at that time, by one account, 1417 
trophy flags ; according to another account — 



328 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

which included apparently in the total the 
returned Battalion and Light Infantry and 
Cavalry Eagles — altogether 1,800 standards. 

Within the walls of the Invalides all was deep 
gloom and hopeless despondency among those 
in charge. Even at nightfall, as it would appear, 
the authorities had not made up their minds 
how the trophies were to be disposed of. 

It is a hapless and pitiful story from first to 
last. Some time previously, while the Allied 
armies were still being kept at bay on the plains 
of Champagne, the Governor of the Invalides, old 
Marshal Serrurier, a distinguished veteran of 
the Revolutionary Army, had applied to the 
Minister of War for instructions as to the disposal 
of the trophies at the Invalides in the event of the 
enemy advancing on Paris. The only answer he 
received was a formal letter to the effect that the 
matter would have to go before the Emperor. At 
that time Napoleon was in the midst of his last 
forlorn-hope attempt to stem the tide of invasion ; 
in the midst of a life-and- death struggle, fighting 
desperately day after day at one place or another. 
The Ministry of War apparently pigeon-holed 
the application after that, and forgot all about 
the trophies at the Invalides until the actual day 
of the attack on Paris — until that Wednesday 
forenoon. 

Then, when already Marmont's outer line of 
defence had been forced, and the last fight for 
the inner heights overlooking the city was raging 



FORGOTTEN UNTIL TOO LATE 329 

furiously, almost within sight from the In- 
valides, a letter from the War Minister was 
handed to Serrurier. It " trusted that the 
Marshal had taken steps for the safety of the 
trophies ; especially for the preservation of 
Frederick the Great's sword. The flags," con- 
tinued the letter, " had best be detached from 
their staves, and rolled up carefully. The War 
Minister is sure that your Excellency will do all 
that is possible. The road to the Loire is open." 
Such were the instructions sent to the Invalides 
after the eleventh hour ! Then, during the 
afternoon, when the enemy's bombshells, fired 
from the plateau of Chaumont, were falling in the 
heart of the city, a single artillery wagon, or 
fourgon, a vehicle barely large enough to remove 
a small percentage of what there was to carry 
away, drew up at the main gates of the Invalides. 
It brought also ten more trophy flags, collected 
from somewhere in Paris. In the general con- 
fusion nobody, it would seem, even inquired 
what they were or where they came from. The 
driver's instructions were merely that " they 
were to go away with the Invalides trophies." 
The ten flags were taken out and stacked in a 
corridor for the time being, while the fourgon 
waited unheeded at the gate until after dark. 

What steps Marshal Serrurier took during the 
afternoon to secure adequate transport is un- 
known ; or, indeed, what he did with himself all 
that time. The Governor was seen just before 



830 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

the dinner-hour in the Corridor d'Avignon, in 
an out-of-the-way part of the building, in con- 
ference with the Lieutenant-Governor and an 
adjutant-major. Another officer, Adjutant Vol- 
lerand, was with them, holding in his hands 
Frederick the Great's sword and sash. Ap- 
parently they did not want to be observed, and 
were discussing how to hide the relics or bury 
them within the precincts of the Invalides. 
After that nothing more was seen of Serrurier 
at the Invalides until between nine and ten at 
night, some hours after the Capitulation, and 
when it had become known that the Allies in- 
tended to occupy Paris in force, and that their 
troops would enter and take possession of the 
city early next morning. Then the Governor 
reappeared. 

A few minutes after nine o'clock the veterans 
of the Invalides, who had been restlessly pacing 
about the halls and corridors during the evening, 
or standing about in dejected groups in the court- 
yards, not knowing what they were to do, were 
suddenly summoned to muster at once in the 
Grand Court, or Cour d'Honneur. All turned out 
from the wards and paraded, forming up by 
the light of lanterns. All but those who were 
bedridden were brought out, the maimed and 
cripples being led out, or hobbling out on their 
crutches, together with the survivors of those 
who had fought so gallantly at the barriers 
during the day, their faces still begrimed with 



''LET US BUHN THEM HERE!'' 331 

powder- smoke, their clothes torn and stained, 
some without their hats, their arms in slings, or 
with bandages over recent wounds. Then the 
tall, spare figure of the Governor, a grim, hard- 
featured old warrior, white-haired, over seventy 
years of age, was seen emerging from his quarters, 
with the senior staff-officers of the Hospital 
following in rear. Serrurier harangued the 
pensioners briefly. He told them that the 
enemy would enter the city next day and would 
present themselves at the Invalides to enforce 
the giving up of the trophies. What did the 
men of the Invalides desire should be done ? 

There was a pause for a moment ; a dead 
silence, as the old soldiers gazed dumbfoundedly 
at one another. Then one man stepped out to 
the front and spoke up for the rest. A battle- 
scarred old sergeant-pensioner of the Grena- 
diers of the Old Guard answered the Governor 
on behalf of his comrades, his reply, greeted as 
it was by vociferous shouts of approval on 
every side, voicing the unanimous wish of the 
veterans. " If they will not let us keep our 
banners, let us burn them here ! We will 
swallow the ashes ! " The order to make a 
bonfire of the trophies then and there was issued 
forthwith. 

Anything that came to hand for fuel was 
eagerly seized, and a great pile speedily made of 
broken-up stools and mess-tables and forms, 
hauled out from the barrack-rooms withindoors. 



332 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

They were stacked in a heap just in front of 
the pedestal on which it had been intended 
to erect an equestrian statue of the heroic 
Marshal Lannes, who died from his wounds at 
Aspern in the arms of Napoleon. Meanwhile, 
parties of men ran inside with ladders, and set 
to work to strip the dining-halls and the Chapel 
of the rows of flags hanging up there. They bore 
them outside, roughly bundled together in their 
arms ; some, silently, with frowning, stern-set 
faces and set teeth ; others beside themselves 
with rage, and cursing savagely aloud ; others 
sullenly muttering oaths ; not a few of the old 
fellows with tears streaming down their cheeks. 
They carried the trophies out and heaped them 
up into an immense funeral pyre. The battalion 
and other Eagles shared the fate of the captured 
trophies — standards, some of these, that had 
been borne under fire in the thick of triumphant 
battle at Austerlitz, and Jena, at Auerstadt 
and Friedland — to save them on the morrow 
from falling into the hands of those in whose 
defeat and humiliation they had had their part. 
The fire was lighted and the masses of tattered 
silk blazed up furiously. When the flames 
were at their fiercest. Marshal Serrurier stepped 
forward and with his own hand flung into the 
midst of the fiery mass the sword of Frederick 
the Great. 

For half the night the veterans stood round and 
watched the flames complete the work of de- 



THE TROPHIES OF TWO CENTURIES 333 

struction. They stood massed round in a densely 
packed throng of sullen, gloomy, brokenhearted 
men. They stayed there until long after mid- 
night, gazing, in a state of dull despair, at the 
fire ; while some now and again stirred up the 
glowing fuel and made the flames leap up afresh, 
roaring and crackling and casting a dull red 
throbbing glare over the old walls and rows of 
windows all round, and gleaming on the lofty 
gilded dome of the Invalides, in itself an intended 
memento of victory. On first seeing the golden 
domes of the Kremlin as he approached Moscow, 
Napoleon had sent orders to Paris to have the 
dome of the Invalides gilded as a memorial of 
his achievement of the goal of the campaign ! 
Most of the veterans stood there throughout 
the greater part of that cold March night, 
watching until the fire had died down and only 
a great heap of smouldering cinders remained ; 
all that was left of the trophies of victorious 
France. 

Among the vast array of foreign trophies at 
the Invalides that perished on that night were 
English flags nearly two centuries old, the re- 
mains of the spoil of some forty-four English 
banners of Charles the First's soldiers, trium- 
phantly carried to Paris from the He de Rhe 
in November 1627 and hung in Notre Dame. 
Others flags destroyed there, too, dated from the 
wars of the Grand Monarque ; spoils won on 
the battlefield by the famous Conde and Turenne ; 



3S4 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

also trophies taken from William the Third at 
Steenkirk and Landen and elsewhere ; the 
British and Dutch and Danish and Bavarian 
ensigns won by Turenne's great successor, 
Marshal Luxembourg, " le Tapissier de Notre 
Dame," as they dubbed him at Versailles, for 
the almost innumerable trophies sent by Luxem- 
bourg to be hung up in the Cathedral of Paris, 
with State processions and Te Deums in the 
presence of the King. Other British battle- 
spoils, the trophies of France, which passed out 
of existence at the Invalides on that night were 
these : a flag taken at Fontenoy by the Irish 
Brigade ; the regimental colours surrendered 
by the garrison of Minorca which Admiral 
Byng failed to rescue ; those of another British 
garrison of Minorca of the time of the Great 
Siege of Gibraltar, when France, for the second 
time, wrested the island from England ; four 
British and Hessian regimental flags surren- 
dered to Washington at Yorktown and sent 
by Congress as a gift to the King of France ; 
flags taken by the French from British West 
India garrisons in the same war ; besides British 
naval ensigns also taken during the American 
War, with other British ship-flags, some of which 
indeed dated from the earlier battle times of 
Duguay Trouin and Jean Bart. Destroyed at 
the Invalides also on that Wednesday night 
was a British naval ensign from Trafalgar. It 
had been hoisted on board one of Nelson's prizes, 



SPOILS TAKEN IN NAVAL FIGHTS 835 

the Algeciras. In the storm after the battle 
the ship was in imminent peril of wrecks and the 
French prisoners on board were liberated in 
order to help to save her. They used their 
freedom to overpower the small British prize- 
crew and carried the vessel off into Cadiz, whence 
the British ensign, hoisted originally in triumph 
over the French tricolor during the battle of 
two days before, on the Algeciras being cap- 
tured, was sent as a trophy to Paris. There were 
also destroyed at the Invalides at the same 
time the ensign of Lord Cochrane's famous 
brig- of -war, the Speedy, captured in the Mediter- 
ranean in 1801, and those of three British line- 
of-battle ships, the Berwick, the Swiftsure, and 
the Hannibal, taken within the previous twenty 
years. 

Most of the trophies won by Napoleon and the 
Grand Army all over Europe, and by the Armies 
of the Republic and Consulate before that, 
perished in the holocaust : the spoils of Valmy 
and Fleurus and Jemmapes ; of Hohenlinden ; 
of Dego and Mondovi ; of Rivoli and Monte- 
notte ; of Castiglione, Lodi, and Areola ; of 
Zurich and Marengo, and other victories. On 
that night, too, passed out of existence the 
famous flag of the Army of Italy presented by 
Napoleon, and bearing inscribed on it the names 
of eighty triumphs on the battlefield and the 
detailed record of the taking of 150,000 prisoners, 
170 standards, 550 siege-guns, and 600 pieces 
23 



336 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

of field artillery ; the Horsetail banners of the 
Mamelukes, taken by Napoleon at the battle 
of the Pyramids ; the historic standard of the 
Knights of St. John, won in hand-to-hand fight 
outside the main gate of Valetta. Most of 
the 340 Prussian standards Napoleon sent to 
Paris after the Jena campaign, together with 
the sword and Black Eagle sash of Frederick 
the Great, as well as the recovered French 
trophies of the Seven Years' War, originally 
won by Frederick at Rosbach, the standards 
of Frederick the Great's Guards, and Austrian 
spoils taken by the Prussians at Leuthen, Kolin, 
and Hohenfriedburg, all of which had been 
carried off to Paris by Napoleon — these were 
among the war-treasures destroyed at the In- 
valides on that night. With them went into 
the flames the Grand Army's Russian trophies 
from Eylau and Friedland, the Austrian trophies 
from Eckmuhl and Wagram, besides many 
Spanish and Portuguese trophies taken before 
Wellington landed in the Peninsula to turn the 
tide of war. 

One French Eagle which perished on that 
night was the survivor of a disaster : Dupont's 
surrender at Bailen in Andalusia in 1808,^ at 

^ General Dupont, an officer of the highest promise and with 
an exceptionally brilliant record, Ney's right-hand man, and 
chief divisional leader on many battlefields, a special favourite 
also with Napoleon ("a man I loved and was rearing up to be 
a marshal," were Napoleon's words of him), while on the ex- 
pedition which was to win him the baton, at the head of 25,000 



AFTER DUPONT'S SURRENDER 337 

the outset of the Spanish uisurrection ; that 
cruel humiliation for the arms of France, the news 
of which came on Europe with all the startling 
effect of a thunderclap, and drove Napoleon 
nearly frantic in his furious indignation. It had 
been one of three Eagles taken by the Spaniards, 
that of the 24me Legere, and had been recovered 
by the daring of an officer of the regiment, one 
of the prisoners, Captain Lanusse. Confined in a 
prison-hulk at Cadiz, he escaped to shore one 
night, managed to find out where his regiment's 
flag was kept, displayed as a Spanish trophy, got 
hold of it, and then made his way outside the city 
into the lines of the besieging French army. 
There he presented the Eagle to Marshal Soult, 

men, let himself be surrounded and cut off ; trapped among the 
gorges of the Sierra Morena by a horde of peasants backed up 
by Spanish regulars ; and then, in spite of a final chance that 
offered for him to force his way through, surrendered to the 
enemy. He had conunitted " une chose sans exculpe ; une 
lachete insultante," declared Napoleon in savage fviry on hearing 
of the svtrrender. Those who had had part in it, declared the 
Emperor, should " die on the scaffold " — " ils porteront sur 
r^chaffaud la peine de ce grand crime national ! " He had 
Brigadier Legendre, Dupont's Chief of the Staff, who had been 
released on parole, brought before him at Valladolid, and heaped 
on the wretched, broken man the bitterest reproaches and 
revilings ; beside himself in his wrath. Not a word in reply, in 
explanation, would he listen to. Before the Imperial Guard 
on parade, and the assembled Imperial Staff, Napoleon finally 
gripped the general by the wrist and shook it passionately. 
An onlooker, another officer, describes the scene : "A nervous 
contraction of the muscles seemed to seize the Emperor. ' What, 
General ! ' he ejaculated, his voice quivering with fury. ' Why 
did not your hand wither when it signed that infamous capitu- 
lation ! * " Legendre was cashiered : Dupont (who had been 
ill and was wounded during the battle) was cashiered, degraded 



338 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

who forwarded it direct to Napoleon. Lanusse, 
as his reward, was promoted a chef de bataillon 
of the 8th of the Line, and fell to the bayonet of 
a British soldier of the 87th Royal Irish Fusi- 
liers at Barrosa. The recovered Eagle Napoleon 
sent to the Invalides. 

By morning all that remained of the proud 
trophies of France at the Invalides was a heap 
of grey ashes, fragments of charred flag-poles, 
and scraps of partly molten metal. The debris 
was raked up at daylight, and shovelled into the 
artillery fourgon of the previous afternoon, 
which had been standing all night outside the 
main gate of the Invalides. The artillery wagon 
drove off with it to the Seine near by and emptied 



from the Legion of Honour, and kept under police surveillance as 
long as the Empire lasted. 

What became of the other two Eagles, those of the " Garde 
de Paris " and of the Second Battalion of the 6th Light Infantry, 
and the fovu-teen Reserve Battalion flags that were taken at 
Bailen is unknown. They are not in Spain, although one trophy 
indirectly associated with the disaster is now at Madrid, the 
admiral's flag of Admiral Rosily, who was at Cadiz with the 
French squadron which Dupont was marching to rescue. It is 
kept as a trophy in the Museo Naval of Madrid. Rosily had 
charge of the five French ships of the line which escaped into 
Cadiz after Trafalgar. When Spain rose against Napoleon, they 
were placed in danger from the garrison of Cadiz ; being at the 
same time unable to put to sea because a British fleet blockaded 
the port. Dupont' s army was specially sent to bring away the 
4,000 soldiers and sailors on board, who were then to abandon 
the ships. Just before Dupont reached Bailen, the Spaniards 
attacked Rosily, bombarding his ships with heavy cannon, and 
mortars and a gvmboat flotilla, and he had to surrender, his 
admiral's flag being carried off by the Spaniards, ultimately to 
find its way to its present resting-place. 



ALL THAT WAS DREDGED UP 339 

the heap into the river. That was the end of 
the night's destruction. 

Some portion of the debris was recovered from 
the Seine a year afterwards, and is preserved in 
the Chapel of the Invalides now. In June 
1815 a workman, doing some repairs by the 
riverside, discovered a portion of a flag under 
water, and on hearing of that, two patriotic 
young Frenchmen, an engineer and a journalist, 
privately set to work soon afterwards to see 
if they could fish up anything that might be 
worth preserving. At the time the Allies were in 
possession of Paris, during the second occupa- 
tion, after Waterloo, and the two young men 
had to proceed cautiously. They were successful 
in the end in recovering portions of 183 trophies, 
metal spear-head ornaments, from ensign-staves 
mostly. Seventy-eight were later identified as 
of Austrian origin ; one as part of a British flag ; 
two as having belonged to Russian standards ; 
various fragments as the remains of thirty-nine 
Prussian standards ; four from Spanish flags 
with Bourbon fleurs-de-lis ; and two frag- 
ments of Turkish standards from Egypt. The 
remainder of the salvage it was impossible to 
identify. 

That the great sacrifice had not been made in 
vain, was speedily apparent. In the course of 
the morning after the bonfire, a little before noon 
on Thursday, March 31, within two hours of the 
entry into Paris of the vanguard of the Allied 



340 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

armies, a Russian aide de camp presented him- 
self at the Invalides, and, in the name of the 
Allied sovereigns, demanded a statement of the 
trophies kept there. The officer came up on 
horseback, accompanied by a mounted man of 
the National Guard, and an armed escort of 
Russian dragoons. The main gate was open as 
usual, and the Russian officer rode through with- 
out taking notice of the gate-sentry's challenge. 
He was only stopped by a rush of the pensioners' 
day-guard, called out by the sentry's shout of 
alarm — " Aux armes ! " The guard turned out 
and faced the aide de camp with lowered hal- 
berds. The Russian colonel protested, but the 
officer on duty refused to let him pass without 
orders from his own chief, and General Darnaud, 
the Lieutenant-Governor, was sent for. That 
officer came, and the Russian dismounted and 
explained his mission. He had orders, he said, 
to " take cognisance " of the trophies of the 
Invalides. General Darnaud replied bluntly : 
*' Very good, I will permit you to visit the Hotel. 
Come with me ! " The general added : "As to 
the trophies, sir, we have dealt with them ac- 
cording to the laws of war ! " " On en avait agi 
suivant les lois de guerre ! " were his words. The 
Russian did not seem to grasp the general's 
meaning, and stood still for a moment, staring 
blankly at him. On that, Madame Darnaud, the 
Lieutenant-Governor's wife, who had followed 
into the courtyard immediately after her hus- 



THE WALLS STRIPPED AND BARE 341 

band, interposed. She addressed the officer, 
speaking volubly and angrily, but only to draw 
down on herself from the Russian the uncivil 
rejoinder that he had not come there to talk to 
a woman ! After that, the general, accom- 
panied by some of the men of the main guard 
with shouldered halberds, formally conducted 
the officer inside the Invalides, the party taking 
their way along the colonnade round the Court 
of Honour, in the midst of which could be seen 
the wide burnt-out space where the fire had been, 
the pungent smell of the fumes from which 
still hung about the place, and so into the Chapel 
of St. Louis. There the scene that met the 
Russian aide de camp's eyes seemed to stagger 
him : bare blank walls, the gallery stripped and 
defaced ; with empty and broken metal sockets 
here and there to show where the flags had been 
fastened up. The interior had been entirely 
cleared from end to end along the sides. It was 
absolutely unrecognisable to any who had seen 
it before. The Russian officer, who had visited 
the Invalides six or seven years previously, after 
Tilsit, could only gaze round dumbly, utterly 
taken aback. He muttered something, but did 
not speak aloud. Then, glaring round savagely 
into the eyes of those about him, he turned away 
abruptly, and was conducted to the Outer Court, 
where he remounted his horse, and rode off 
hastily in the direction whence he had come. 
AH Napoleon's trophies, however, did not 



342 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

perish at the Invalides. Some of the Grand 
Army's captured flags, as it so chanced, escaped 
destruction on that night, and are at the Invalides 
now. They are in the Chapel and in the Salle 
Turenne, besides half a hundred in the Crypt, 
grouped round Napoleon's tomb. The forty-five 
Austrian flags taken at Ulm are beside Napo- 
leon's tomb, with nine other flags. Presented 
by the Emperor to the Senate, as has been told, 
the Ulm trophies, during the night of March 30, 
were hastily taken down from where they had 
been hung in the Grand Salon for the past nine 
years, and hidden in a vault below. They made 
a second public appearance on the occasion of 
Napoleon's funeral at the Invalides in 1840, when 
they were placed at the head of the coffin. They 
have ever since been kept beside the tomb. 

The Austerlitz trophies met another fate. 
Kept at Notre Dame, they disappeared mysteri- 
ously from there in the early morning of the 
day of the entry of the Allies into Paris. At 
three in the morning of March 31 an urgent mes- 
sage from the Prefect of the Seine was delivered 
at Notre Dame, calling on the Cathedral au- 
thorities to take down and conceal the Austerlitz 
trophies at once. The Chapter met hastily in 
the Archbishop's room, and the flags were all 
down within half an hour. They have never 
been seen since, nor was their fate ever ac- 
counted for. 

At the Luxembourg Palace were displayed 



HOW FIFTY-ONE FLAGS WERE SAVED 348 

110 trophies, the spoils of the Eagles, won from 
all the nations of Europe and presented to 
the Corps Legislatif by Napoleon. They were 
safely removed on the night of March 30, and 
were hidden securely. Brought out and set up 
again a year later, on Napoleon's return from 
Elba, the authorities forgot about hiding them 
again in the confusion after Waterloo. As the 
result more than half of them are now in Berlin. 
Bliicher sent a party of staff officers to seize the 
entire collection, but a sharp-witted functionary 
hoodwinked the Prussians on their arrival. 
They went back to get written orders, and before 
they returned, as many as possible of the trophies 
had been pulled down and got out of the way. 
One of the attendants managed the affair on 
his own initiative, a hall-porter named Mathieu. 
He was able to save and hide as many as fifty-one 
of the flags, and they have since been forwarded 
to the Invalides. The other fifty-nine trophies 
the Prussians seized and carried off. Two 
Austrian standards taken by Napoleon at 
Marengo escaped destruction by having been 
previously lent from the Invalides to an artist, 
Charles Vernet, for a battle-picture he had been 
commissioned to paint for Napoleon. They 
were in Vernet's studio in March 1814. His 
son, Horace Vernet, returned them in later days 
to the Invalides, where they now are. 

In addition, it would seem, at least a moiety 
of the Invalides trophies were kept back at the 



344 THAT MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 

last moment by some of the veterans them- 
selves. Several of the old soldiers, it would 
appear, after stripping down the flags from the 
walls, instead of carrying all out into the court- 
yard to the bonfire, retained and hid a few of 
them on their own account, to smuggle them 
outside afterwards and keep them in conceal- 
ment.^ 

* Years later these trophies were again brought to light, and 
by degrees, one at a time, or two or three together, found their 
way once more to the Hotel, where they form part of the present 
collection. Among those now in the Invalides are six of 
Frederick the Great's trophies annexed at Berlin by Napoleon 
in 1806 ; six Austrian and Bavarian flags, also of the Seven 
Years' War period, removed by Napoleon from Vienna ; an old 
German flag taken by Marshal Turenne, and in earlier times hung 
in Notre Dame ; five Austrian colours of unknown origin ; one 
Russian flag-trophy from Austerlitz ; one Prussian standard 
from Jena ; and a number of Spanish and Portuguese flags from 
the Peninsular War. 

Three British regimental flags, originally captured by Na- 
poleon's Polish lancers at Albuera, found their way back in this 
manner to the Invalides. They were taken at Albuera in the 
first part of the battle, when, under cover of mist and rain squalls, 
the French cavalry, circling round one flank, swooped down on 
the leading British brigade before its regiments could form in 
square. Of the five other British flags at present in the In- 
valides, four were taken on March 8, 1814, just three weeks before 
the burning of the trophies, and had not yet reached Paris. 
They were taken from us in very tragic circumstances — at the 
disastrous attempt to storm the fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom ; 
but the details of that painful story nor the identification of the 
flags do not concern us here. One of the four flags is kept beside 
Napoleon's tomb. The fifth flag purports to have been a British 
sloop-of-war's red ensign and to have been captvired in the 
Baltic in December 1813, in an action of which the British 
Admiralty has no record, and the French accoimt is only a 
tradition. It again, apparently, had not reached Paris by March 
1814. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

The Eagles came back to France with the 
return of Napoleon from Elba ; to lead the last 
Army to the campaign of the Hundred Days. 

They " flew from steeple to steeple across 
France," in Napoleon's expressive phrase, 
** from the shores of Frejus until they alighted 
on the towers of Notre Dame." The enthusiasm 
that greeted their reappearance spread like 
wildfire ; it blazed up like an exploding maga- 
zine. The rapturous acclamation and enthu- 
siasm with which the Eagles were welcomed 
back was the measure of the prevailing 
discontent and resentment among the soldiers 
at the harsh and unworthy treatment they had 
received during the ten months of the restored 
regime. 

The Army had come off badly by its change 
of masters. The Bourbons had done all in their 
power to alienate its regard ; as much through 
malice in not a few cases, as through downright 
stupidity. 

" Of all the institutions of France the most 
thoroughly national and the most thoroughly 

34$ 



346 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

democratic was the Army ; it was accordingly 
against the Army that the noblesse directed its 
first efforts. Financial difficulties made a large 
reduction in the forces necessary. Fourteen 
thousand officers and sergeants were accordingly 
dismissed on half-pay ; but no sooner had this 
measure of economy been effected than a multi- 
tude of emigrants who had served against the 
Republic in the army of the Prince of Conde or 
in La Vendee were rewarded with all degrees 
of military rank. . . . The tricolor, under which 
every battle of France had been fought from 
Jemmapes to Montmartre, was superseded by 
the white flag of the House of Bourbon, under 
which no living soldier had marched to victory. 
. . . The Imperial Guard was removed from 
service at the Palace, and the so-called Military 
Household of the old Bourbon monarchy re- 
vived, with the privileges and the insignia 
belonging to the period before 1775." 

The abolition of the Eagles was the pre- 
liminary step of all. A justifiable measure, no 
doubt, from a political point of view, it touched 
to the quick the military instinct of the nation. 
And on that followed the abolition of the national 
tricolor in favour of the old Bourbon white flag. 

Within three weeks of the Farewell of Fon- 
tainebleau the Eagles of the Army, with the 
tricolor standards, were officially proscribed ; 
the order went forth to send tliem to Paris 
fortliwith for destruction in the furnaces of the 



EVERY ONE TO BE DESTROYED 847 

artillery d^pot at Vincennes. On May 12 it 
was notified that the white Bourbon flag was 
again to be the standard of the Army, with a 
brass fleur-de-lis at the head of the colour- 
staff in place of the Eagle. 

Every regiment was required to send its Eagle 
to the Ministry of War in Paris on receipt of the 
order. No allowances or exceptions were made ; 
although in several instances officers urgently 
petitioned to be allowed to retain their Eagles 
with the corps, if only as mementoes of feats of 
arms achieved by the regiments in battle. 
Every request was rejected, whatever the cir- 
cumstances. There were reasons of State policy 
no doubt, as has been said, against the general 
retention as regimental standards of military 
insignia so intimately associated with Napoleon ; 
but in certain instances, at least, indulgence 
might reasonably have been extended to the 
applications. There were personal and ro- 
mantic associations connected with some of 
the Eagles, specially endearing them to the 
soldiers, for which privilege might well have been 
accorded. One very hard case may be cited 
as typical of others : that of the Eagle of the 
25th of the Line. 

The Eagle of the 25th had been carried under 
fire in some twenty battles and all through the 
Moscow campaign ; and had notable battle- 
scars to show for its distinguished services. One 
leg and one wing of the Eagle had been shot 



348 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

away in action, and there were five bullet-holes 
in its metal body. Its maimed appearance, 
indeed, had attracted Napoleon's attention at 
a review, and he had stopped while riding 
past the regiment and taken the Eagle into his 
hands, examining it with extreme interest and 
putting his fingers into the bullet-holes, finally 
returning it to the Porte- Aigle with a deep bow 
of respect. The regiment almost worshipped 
their Eagle on its own account, for what it had 
gone through ; but it had further undergone 
yet more surprising adventures. The 25th had 
been in the garrison of Dresden in 1813 when 
Marshal St. Cyr had to capitulate to the Aus- 
trians. On the night before the surrender the 
Eagle-staff was broken up and burned, and the 
few strips of ragged silk that remained of the 
shot-torn regimental tricolor flag were tied 
under an officer's uniform for secret conveyance 
out of the city. The shattered Eagle broke in 
two while being removed from its staff, and its 
two fragments were concealed under the petti- 
coats of two vivandieres who were to convey it 
in that manner to the regimental depot in France. 
Under the capitulation the garrison was granted 
the honours of war and a safe-conduct back to 
France. The terms, however, were annulled 
by the Allied Sovereigns then advancing, after 
Leipsic, to invade France, and in the outcome all 
the regiments, after they had started for France, 
were made prisoners and marched away to be 



"SEND IT TO PARIS FORTHWITH!" 349 

interned in Hungary. The major of the 25th 
got back the two fragments of the Eagle, stowed 
them away under his uniform, and kept them 
about him by day and night for five months ; 
until finally, on his release after Napoleon's 
abdication, he brought the Eagle back across 
the Rhine, " wrapped up like contraband." 

On the 25th receiving the order to send in its 
Eagle for destruction, he wrote personally to 
the Minister of War — General Dupont, of Bailen 
notoriety, as has been said — who had never 
forgiven Napoleon's harsh usage of him, and now 
took every opportunity of paying back old scores 
on the heads of his former comrades in arms. 
The major wrote setting forth in detail the story 
of the regimental Eagle, relating its exception- 
ally interesting career and its battle damages, 
also how he had preserved it after Dresden, and 
implored the War Minister, in the name of the 
regiment, that they might retain the two frag- 
ments to be kept in the regimental " Salle 
d'Honneur " as an honoured relic. The reply 
was a peremptorily worded command to send 
the Eagle to Paris forthwith for destruction 
with the other Eagles of the Army. The major, 
in the circumstances, considered himself com- 
pelled to comply. He summoned the officers to 
his quarters, where they " paid their last adieux 
to the object of veneration, and then, in their 
presence, the Eagle fragments were packed in a 
box, and despatched to the Ministry of War." 



350 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

The stoiy, with others to the same effect, went 
the round of every barrack-room in France, and 
wherever it was told, there were angry mur- 
murings and increased discontent. 

By no means all the Eagles of the Army, it 
would appear, were given up to the authorities 
in Paris. Not a few colonels flatly refused to 
comply with Dupont's order, taking the risk 
of prosecution or of being turned out of the 
service summarily — a certainty in any event 
under the new regime, as the majority of the 
senior regimental ofiicers anticipated, and as 
actually came to pass. General Petit of the 
Grenadiers of the Old Guard, as has already been 
said, refused to give up that famous Eagle, and 
concealed it successfully ; and not a few other 
officers did the same with the Eagles of their 
corps. Others destroyed their regimental Eagles 
and either burned the silken tricolor flags, or 
cut them up ; dividing the ashes or fragments 
among their comrades. 

Their Eagles taken away, it was next made 
known to the Army, that the " battle honours " 
and war distinctions of the various corps, won 
under Napoleon, would not appear on the new 
regimental flags when issued. " Austerlitz," 
" Jena," " Friedland," and the other names of 
pride to the Grand Army, were henceforward to 
be erased from military recognition. The new 
flags, when publicly distributed in September 
1814, showed each a blank white field, with on it 



NO MORE REGIMENTAL NUMBERS 351 

only an oval shield, bearing the three fleurs-de-lis, 
the Royal Bourbon cognisance, and the name 
of the corps — its new name, revived from Army 
Lists of the Old Monarchy, a name long since 
forgotten and totally unfamiliar. 

The regimental numbers of the Grand Army, 
ennobled by glorious campaigns, immortalised 
by their associations of victory and brilliant 
feats of arms, instinct with a renown acquired on 
a hundred battlefields all over Europe, were at 
the same time done away with by a stroke of the 
War Minister's pen. That proved the most 
unpopular measure of all ; the cruellest of blows 
to the esprit de corps and pride of the former 
soldiers of Napoleon. It was felt as a gratuitous 
insult ; it was perhaps the most deeply resented 
injury of all. In future, in place of their treasured 
regimental numbers, the various corps of the 
Army, horse and foot, were to be known by 
departmental or territorial names — meaningless 
to nine soldiers out of ten, and without traditions 
— or else by the names of royal princes and prin- 
cesses, and titled personages, remembered only, 
some of them, as having fled on the battlefield 
before the national armies. Bercheney and 
Chamborant Hussars, Orleans Dragoons and 
Chasseurs, Regiments d'Artois, de Berri, d'Ar- 
magnac, d'Angouleme, de Monsieur, d'Anjou, 
and so forth — what traditions had designations 
such as these to compare with, to mention in the 
same breath with, the traditions immortally 
24 



352 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

associated with the numbers, familiar as house- 
hold words wherever French soldiers met together, 
of the dragoon and chasseur regiments which 
Murat had led at Austerlitz, of the dashing 
hussars of Lassalle, of the cuirassiers whose 
resistless onset had swept the field at Jena, of 
the horsemen at the sight of whose sabres before 
their gates Prussian fortresses had surrendered 
at discretion ? It came with a sense of personal 
degradation, as a sort of desecration on the 
men of regiments like the 75th of the Line, or the 
32nd, the 9th Light Infantry or the 84th, or the 
35th, or "Le terrible 57me " — to be labelled and 
hear themselves officially addressed on parade 
as " Beauvoisis " or " Auxerre " or " Nivernais," 
by the name of some prosaic locality, or the 
style of some ancient aristocrat, their titular 
colonel.^ 

^ To the Army, Louis XVIII. was only a King imposed on 
them by their enemies ; by the trivimphant enemies of France, 
the European Coahtion. He was merely the " 'protege of foreign 
bayonets," placed over them by the English and Prussians ; 
" I'emigr^ rentr6 en croupe derriere un cosaque ! " To the 
soldiers he only personified defeat and disaster ; and the memories 
that they gloried in had been of set purpose obliterated by him 
and his creatures. The very charter under which he had as- 
sumed authority was dated the 19th year of his reign, as though 
Napoleon had never been. He had proscribed their Eagle 
standards before which all Europe had trembled. By his ordi- 
nances he had abolished and insulted the memory of theii' vic- 
tories. In addition he had disbanded and turned adrift their 
officers, and had left them to starve, without the pay that was 
their due, in wretchedness and rags. 

Fuel was added to the fires of disaffection in the ranks by the 
tales that went round of every barrack-room of personal ill- 



AT THE HEAD OF THE " ELBA GUARD " 353 

Napoleon announced the return of the Eagle 
in his first address to the Army, sent off on his 
landing to be distributed broadcast among the 
soldiers. " Come and range yourselves under 
the banners of your chief. . . . Victory shall 
march at the pas cle charge : the Eagle with the 
national colours shall fly from steeple to steeple 
to the towers of Notre Dame ! " 

The first of the regimental Eagles to make its 
appearance in France accompanied Napoleon 
from Elba and landed with him. It was the 
Eagle of the six hundred veterans of the Old 
Guard who, as the " Elba Guard," had volun- 
teered to share Napoleon's exile, and had formed 
his personal escort. It figured in the historic 

usage of and affronts to officers who had won the respect of all 
on campaign, and before the enemy under fire. Ci-devant colonels 
and captains in long-forgotten corps of the old-time Royal Army 
were appointed at one stride Lieutenant-Generals and Major- 
Generals on the Active List, ousting and sending into unemploy- 
ment men, whom Napoleon himself had picked out for command, 
whose names were household words to the Army. In almost 
every regiment officers who had grown grey in war-service before 
the enemy, who had won distinction on a hundred battlefields, 
were shelved ; set aside for emigris, who, a quarter of a century 
before, had been boy subalterns in the army of the ancien 
regime, and had not set foot in France since they fled the country 
at the outbreak of the Revolution. These were brought back 
and posted wholesale as colonels and chefs de bataillon all 
through the Army, superseding and driving into poverty veterans 
who had raised themselves to their ranks and positions through 
personal merit and war-service, and had qualified step by step 
in the different grades. At a levee one day, after a review before 
the Due de Berri, a grey-headed old regimental officer stepped 
forward, according to custom, and made a request to have 
granted to him for his services the Cross of St. Loxiis. " What 
have you done to deserve it ? " was the Prince's reply, uttered 



S54 THE feAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

scene at Grenoble a week after the landing, where 
Napoleon, on meeting the first soldiers sent to 
arrest his advance, by the magic of his presence 
and the sight of the Eagle borne behind him, so 
dramatically won over to his side the former 
5th of the Line, the first regiment of the Army to 
throw in its lot with Napoleon after Elba. The 
Eagle that had its part on the historic occasion 
— with its silken tricolor flag, embroidered with 
silver wreaths and scrollery, and golden bees, 
crowns and Imperial cyphers, and inscribed 
" L'Empereur Napoleon a la Garde Nationale de 
File Elba " — is now in private possession in 
England. It fell by some means into the hands 
of a Prussian soldier at the occupation of Paris 

in a cold and sneering tone. ** I have served in the Army of 
France for twenty years, your Royal Highness ! " " Twenty 
years of robbery ! " w^as the cruel and insolent answer as the 
Due de Berri tiirned his back on the veteran. The words were 
repeated everywhere among the soldiers and had the worst 
effect. Another tale that caused deep resentment throughout 
the Army was that of the treatment which Marshal Ney had 
received at Court when protesting against rudeness which had 
been shown by certain ladies of title to his wife one day at the 
Tuileries. They had openly insulted the Mar^chale Ney by 
making sarcastic and contemptuous comments on her compara- 
tively lowly birth. Marshal Ney personally complained to the 
King, but was coldly referred to the Court Chamberlain. He 
laid his complaint before that functionary and was personally 
rebuffed " in a harsh and insolent manner " — as the only reply 
to which the Marshal with his wife had withdrawn from Paris 
altogether. And more than one other officer of eminence, it 
W818 told, had in like manner been forced to cease attendance 
at Court. When the moment came for the reappearance of 
Napoleon in their midst, the Army was more than ready to re- 
ceive their old leader with open arms and rally once more to the 
Eagles. 



"LET ANY WHO WISHES— FIRE ! " 355 

after Waterloo and was sold a few weeks later to 
a visitor to Paris. In the dramatic scene of the 
meeting of Napoleon with the 5th of the Line, 
General Cambronne, Commander of the Elba 
Guard, bore the Eagle a few paces behind 
Napoleon and held it up appealingly to the 
regiment. 

The 5th of the Line, says one story, vouched 
for by an eye-witness, was marching out to block 
a narrow gorge through which ran the road 
Napoleon was known to be taking. At some 
little way off, his party was seen approaching, he 
himself being readily recognised by his small 
cocked hat and redingote gris. Immediately the 
men were formed up across the road, and, as 
Napoleon came nearer, they were ordered to 
make ready and present. They did so : the 
muskets came up and were levelled. Then came 
a pause ; dead silence ; an interval of breathless 
suspense. Napoleon's own action decided the 
issue. Stepping rapidly forward, opening and 
throwing back his great-coat as he did so, he 
called aloud to the regiment : " Soldats, voila 
votre Empereur ! Que celui d'entre vous qui 
voudra le tuer, faire feu sur lui ! " (" Soldiers, here 
is your Emperor ! Let any one who wishes to 
kill him fire on him ! ") A Royalist officer 
hastily called out the order : " Le voila ! donnez 
feu, soldats ! " But not a shot came. The next 
instant, with shouts of " Vive I'Empereur ! " the 
soldiers lowered their muskets, broke their 



356 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

ranks, and rushed forward to surround Napoleon 
and welcome him in a frenzy of enthusiasm. 

According to another story, this is what took 
place. Before the word "Fire!" could be given. 
Napoleon had stepped forward, close up to the 
muzzles of the levelled muskets. With a smile 
on his face he began in his usual colloquial, 
familiar way when talking to the men : *' Well, 
soldiers of the 5th, how are you all ? I am come 
to see you again : is there any one of you who 
wishes to kill me ? " Shouts came in reply of 
" No, no. Sire ! certainly not ! " The muskets 
went down ; Napoleon passed along the ranks, 
inspecting the men just as of old ; after that the 
regiment faced about, took the lead of the party, 
and, with Napoleon in the middle and the " Elba 
Guard " bringing up the rear, all marched on 
towards Grenoble. 

There, meanwhile, events had been moving 
rapidly. The commandant of the garrison was 
an emigre officer, but most of the troops had 
been won over for Napoleon by Colonel Labe- 
doyere, at the head of the 7th of the Line. The 
commandant ordered the gates to be closed, 
which was done ; also the cannon on the ram- 
parts to be loaded. That order was duly 
obeyed ; " but the men rammed home the 
cannon-balls first, before putting in the powder, 
so that the guns were useless." Lab^doyere 
marched out with his regiment to meet Napoleon, 
the band playing, " and carrying the Eagle of the 



MARSHAL NEY'S DILEMIVIA 357 

regiment, which had been concealed and pre- 
served." They met Napoleon a short distance 
from Grenoble and, with the 5th, led the way 
in, arriving after dark. " On Napoleon's ap- 
proach, the populace thronged the ramparts with 
torches ; the gates were burst open ; Napoleon 
was borne through the town in triumph by a 
wild and intermingled crowd of soldiers and 
workpeople." ^ 

^ It was the action of Marshal Ney that sealed the fate of the 
Bourbon regime. 

Ney had accepted the Restoration as bringing peace to ex- 
hausted France ; he had given in his allegiance to the Bo\irbons. 
Angry and sick at heart as he was over the ill-treatment meted 
out to his brother officers, and the humiliations that the new 
regime had inflicted on the Army, and sore over personal grie- 
vances of his own, he had, in spite of all, loyally held back from 
intriguing against the restored dynasty. Napoleon's leaving 
Elba, when he first heard the news, he condemned outspokenly 
as a crime against France. Impulsive and headstrong by nature, 
he forgot his grievances, and hastened to Paris to offer his sword 
to the King. Napoleon, he said to the King at the interview 
at the Tuileries, which was immediately granted him, was a 
madman and deserved to be brought to Paris " like a bandit in 
an iron cage." So hostile witnesses at Ney's court-martial 
declared, though Ney himself emphatically denied using any 
words of the kind. His services were accepted gladly, for Ney 
was the most popular of all the marshals with the soldiers, and 
he was sent to lead the army against Napoleon. Besangon was 
proposed as his head-quarters, and he betook himself there. 

Almost at once, however, anxieties and doubts beset Ney. 
On taking up his command he found but few regiments available. 
He was promised reinforcements, but none arrived, and while 
he waited, no news of the rapidly altering situation reached him 
from Paris. Meanwhile the news came steadily in from all 
sides that the soldiers could not be trusted to oppose Napoleon. 
Ney was still loyal to the Bourbons, and he moved his troops 
nearer the line of advance Napoleon was taking ; to Lons le 
Saulnier, midway between Besan9on and Lyons. To officers 



358 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

Napoleon entered Paris on the night of 
March 20. The Eagles made their first appear- 
ance in the capital next day. They had been 
officially restored as the standards of the Army 

who hinted that the soldiers would not fight if Napoleon ap- 
peared, Ney answered angrily : *' They shall fight. I will take 
a musket and begin the firing myself ! I will run my sword 
through the first man who hesitates ! " 

But events were moving too fast : the tide of Bonapartism 
was rising visibly on all sides. Napoleon, Ney heard, was being 
received everywhere with acclamation ; the soldiers were said 
to be declaring for him by thousands. Already in every garrison 
the soldiers were displaying their old Eagle cap-badges and 
tricolor cockades. " Every soldier in the Army," relates Savary 
in his Memoirs, " had preserved his tricolor cockade and the 
Eagle-badge of his shako or cap. It was needless for any order 
to be given for their restunption ; that had been done on the 
first intelligence of the Emperor's landing in France." Every- 
where too, officers who had kept back and hidden the old regi- 
mental Eagles and tricolor standards, were bringing them out 
openly. In regiments where the Ministerial order had been 
obeyed and the Eagles sent to Paris for destruction, the soldiers 
now took out the Boirrbon arms from the white flags, substi- 
tuting a tricolor shield for the royal shield with the three fleurs- 
de-Us. 

Ney next began to doubt what line of conduct he ought to 
adopt. On one side was his oath of allegiance to the King. On 
the other was the prospect of a civil war which would be ruinous 
to France, which he, at the head of his army, had it in his power 
to prevent. It became borne in on him as his duty to the covm- 
try in the circvunstances to throw his influence on the side of 
his old comrades and Napoleon. His personal grievances against 
the Bourbons rankled in his mind, and self-interest urged him 
to go with the stream ; but it wets rather a sense of duty and 
patriotism, to avert a civil war, that impelled Ney to take the 
action that he did. His final decision Avas influenced by an in- 
sidiously worded letter from Napoleon, playing on Ney's personal 
feelings and calling him by his old name of " the Bravest of the 
Brave." The letter was brought to him by two secret emissaries 
on the night of March 13, who urged on the marshal that his 
soldiers were about to abandon him, and that it was impossible 



AT THE FIRST REVIEW IN PARIS 359 

by an Imperial decree issued on March 13 from 
Lyons. 

Paris saw them again first at the review of the 
garrison of the capital which Napoleon held 

for him single-handed to hope to stem the current of national 
feeling. That and the letter turned the scale. Ney decided to 
abandon the cause of the Bourbons. 

Assembling his troops on parade next day, he publicly de- 
clared for Napoleon in a fiery proclamation addressed to the 
Army. " Officers, under-officers, and soldiers," Ney began, 
reading out the proclamation from on horseback in front of 
the assembled battalions, " the cause of the Bourbons is lost 
for ever ! The dynasty adopted by the French nation is about 
to reascend the throne. To the Emperor Napoleon, our 
Sovereign, alone belongs the right of reigning in our dear coun- 
try." The proclamation concluded with these words : " Soldiers, 
I have often led you to victory. I will now conduct you to that 
immortal phalanx which the Emperor Napoleon is leading to- 
wards Paris. It will arrive there within a few days, when our 
hopes and our happiness will be for ever realised. Long live 
the Emperor ! " 

The declaration came as fire to a train of gunpowder. Ney 
had hardly uttered a dozen words before frantic exclamations 
and shouts bm'st forth ; shakos and caps and helmets were raised 
and waved on muskets and swords, amid tvunultuous cries of 
" Vive I'Empereur ! " " Vive le Marechal Ney ! " The men 
broke their ranks and rushed headlong roiind Ney, catching hold 
of him and kissing his hands and feet and tiniform : " those 
not near enough kissing his embarrassed aides de camp." 
Shouted some : " We knew you would not leave us in the hands 
of the emigres ! " The marshal at the close was escorted back 
to his quarters amid a crowd of excited soldiers cheering franti- 
cally. 

The scene there was very different. Ai'rived in his quarters, 
Ney found himself at once svirrounded by a group of anxious 
and nervous staff-officers and aides de camp. Said some : " You 
should have informed us of it before, M. le Marechal ! We 
ought not to have been made witnesses of such a spectacle ! " 
One or two officers protested and resigned on the spot. One 
aide de camp, indeed, a former imigre, broke his sword in two 
and flung the pieces at Ney'e feet. " It is easier," he exclaimed 



360 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

within twenty -four hours of his arrival ; on the 
Place du Carrousel, in front of the Tuileries. 
There too the Imperial Guard, reconstituted that 
same morning, made their public reappearance. 
In the midst of the brilliant scene, as Napoleon 
was ending the address of personal thanks for 
their loyalty that he made to the assembled 
troops in dramatic style, suddenly General 
Cambronne marched on to the parade at the 
head of the Elba Six Hundred, with drums 
beating and escorting the former Eagles of the 
Guard. Drawing up in line ceremoniously, the 
" Elba Guard " halted before Napoleon, salut- 
ing and dipping the Eagles forward. A frantic 
roar of enthusiastic cheering greeted the salute 
of the Eagles. 

Napoleon took instant advantage of the first 
pause as the cheering subsided. Pointing to the 
veterans just arrived, and standing with the 
Eagles ranged in front of them, held on high at 
arm's-length by their bearers, he again addressed 
the assembled troops. " They bring back to 



passionately, " for a man of honour to break iron than to break 
his word." 

" You are children," was the marshal's answer. " It is 
necessary to do one thing or the other. What would you have 
me do ? Can I stop the advancing sea with my hands ? Can I 
go and hide like a coward to avoid the responsibility of events I 
cannot alter ? Marshal Ney cannot take refuge in the dark ! 
There is but one way to deal with the evil — to take one side and 
avert civil war. So we shall get into our hands the man who has 
returned, and prevent his committing further follies. I am not 
going over to a man, but to my country." 



ONCE MORE THE FIELD OF MARS 361 

you the Eagles which are to serve as your rallying- 
point. In giving them to the Guard, I give them 
to the whole Army. Treason and misfortune 
have cast over them a veil of mourning ; but 
they now reappear resplendent in their old 
glory. Swear to me, soldiers, that these Eagles 
shall always be found where the welfare of the 
nation calls them, and those who would invade 
our land again shall not be able to endure their 
glance ! " " We swear it ! We swear it ! " 
was the answer that came back amid tumultuous 
shouts from every side. 

The Eagles restored by proclamation as the 
standards of the Army, and the regiments recon- 
stituted by their old numbers, to the unbounded 
gratification of the soldiers everywhere, another 
Imperial proclamation announced that Napoleon 
would once again personally distribute new Eagles 
to the regiments. The ceremony of the Field of 
Mars of ten years before would be repeated. 
The Emperor, with his own hand, would present 
each Eagle to a regimental deputation, which 
would specially attend in Paris to receive it. To 
give the utmost possible eclat also to the pro- 
ceedings on the occasion, just as the former 
presentation of the Eagles had been made an 
integral feature of the Coronation celebration, so 
now the forthcoming distribution would take 
place at the same time that Napoleon renewed 
his Imperial oath of fidelity to the Constitution, 
as reshaped by the " Acte Additionel^^^ which 



362 THE F:AGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

had been drafted to comply with the political 
exigencies of the moment. 

The date provisionally fixed was towards the 
end of May. By that time the returns of the 
Plebiscite voting, to authorise the re-establish- 
ment of the Empire, would be known. The 
historic event takes its name of the " Champ 
de Mai " from the date proposed for it, although, 
in actual fact, the ceremony took place on 
June 1. The place appointed was where the 
former distribution of the Eagles had been made, 
the Field of Mars, the wide open space in front of 
the Military School, and the display was to be 
on no less grandiose scale than its predecessor. 

Immense wooden stands were erected all round 
the Field of Mars, with tiers of benches, to seat, 
it was calculated, as many as two hundred 
thousand people. In front of the Military School 
was set up an Imperial throne, under a canopy 
of crimson silk, and elevated on a gorgeously 
decorated platform. Napoleon was to take his 
new Imperial oath from the throne, and there- 
upon formally attach his signature to the " Acte 
Additionel.^^ There was to be a religious ser- 
vice also, and for that an altar was erected at 
one side of the throne, raised on steps and 
draped in red damask, picked out with gold. 
The balconies and stands all round were draped 
and hung with tricolor flags, festooned amid 
gilded Eagles, and heraldic insignia, and em- 
blematic figures meant to typify the prosperity 



NlN^ MARSHALS TAKE PART 363 

and glory awaiting France under the returned 
Imperial regime. As on the previous occasion, 
all the celebrities of France were invited, and 
had their allotted places on the stands nearest 
the throne. As before, too, the central arena 
was packed with a dense array of troops ; the 
deputations called up to receive the Eagles, the 
massed battalions of the Imperial Guard, and 
detachments of all the regiments of the garrison 
of Paris. It was a radiantly fine summer's day, 
and the display offered a spectacle of surpassing 
brilliance. Says one of the officers : " The sun 
flashing on 50,000 bayonets seemed to make 
the vast space sparkle ! " 

A hundred cannon fired from the Esplanade of 
the Invalides ushered in the day of the " Champ 
de Mai.^^ Again, at ten o'clock, the artillery 
thundered forth as Napoleon quitted the 
Tuileries in State to take his way to the Field 
of Mars, " amid prodigious crowds of spectators 
applauding enthusiastically," along the Champs 
Elys6es and across the Pont d'Jena. 

Nine of the marshals who had cast in their 
lot with the returned Emperor rode on either side 
of Napoleon's coach : Davout, Minister of War, 
who had not yet sworn allegiance to the Bour- 
bons ; Soult, the newly appointed Chief of the 
Staff of the Army ; Serrurier, Governor of the 
Invalides ; Brune and Jourdan ; Moncey and 
Mortier ; Suchet and Grouchy. Ney was absent ; 
Napoleon had refused to see him. Ney's widely 



364 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

reported speech to Louis XVIII., that he would 
" bring the bandit to Paris in an iron cage," had 
not been forgiven. Murat was in disgrace for 
his recent blundering move in Northern Italy, 
which had vitally affected Napoleon's plans. 
His desertion during the closing campaign, when 
Napoleon was at bay after Leipsic, moreover, 
was beyond condonation. Of others who had 
been at Napoleon's side on the Field of Mars ten 
years before, Lefebvre and Massena professed 
to be too old and infirm for service in the field, 
although Massena was still nominally on the 
Active List, and had been in command for King 
Louis at Toulon. He was due in Paris to meet 
Napoleon, but his fidelity was more than doubt- 
ful : " gorged with wealth, Massena thought 
only of preserving it." Augereau kept in the 
background, Napoleon refusing to have more to 
do with him. Berthier, on that very morning, was 
lying dead at Bamberg in Bavaria ; whether 
victim of an accident or suicide has never been 
made clear. Lannes and Bessieres were in their 
graves, fallen on the field of battle. Bernadotte, 
King of Sweden, was actively on the side of the 
enemy. Marmont, Oudinot, Macdonald, and 
Victor, marshals of later creation, had left 
France in company with the Bourbon princes. 
Old Kellerman and Perignon, " Honorary Mar- 
shals " of 1804, had not come forward again, re- 
maining in seclusion ; nor had St. Cyr, " the 
man of ice, " another marshal since the Field 



THE "MAN OF SEDAN" WAS THERE 365 

of Mars, who was staying at home with studied 
indifference, " occupying himself on his estate 
with his hay crops and playing the fiddle." 

Napoleon was accompanied in the State coach 
by three of his brothers — Lucien, Joseph, and 
Jerome. This time there was of course no 
Empress present. Josephine was dead : Marie 
Louise was holding back elsewhere. None of 
the Bonaparte princesses appeared in the pro- 
cession. The only one attending the " Champ de 
Mai " came as a spectator : Hortense Beauharnais, 
the daughter of Josephine and wife of Louis 
Bonaparte. She had gone on in advance to the 
Military School and was seated among the 
exalted personages awaiting Napoleon there ; 
accompanied by her two boys (one the future 
Third Napoleon, the "Man of Sedan"). She 
seemed most interested, as we are told, in the 
sketch-book she brought with her to draw a 
picture of the scene. 

Napoleon alighted in the First Court of the 
Military School, being acclaimed on all sides as 
he made his appearance with vociferous shouts 
of " Vive I'Empereur ! " Preceded by palace 
grandees and Court officials, who had alighted 
from their carriages in advance and formed up 
to receive him, he entered the building and 
passed on through to take his seat on the throne. 
" He had the air of being in pain and anxious," 
describes an onlooker. " He descended slowly 
from his carriage while a hundred drums beat 



366 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

* Au ChampJ' Then, advancing quickly, re- 
turning the salutes of the assemblage at either 
side with bows, he proceeded to the throne, and 
sat down, gazing round at the people in their 
dense masses as he did so. Jerome and Joseph 
seated themselves on the right ; Lucien on the 
left ; all three clad in white satin with black 
velvet hats with white plumes. Napoleon him- 
self had on his Imperial mantle of ermine and 
purple velvet embroidered with golden bees." 

For a time the thundering cannon salutes 
and acclamations of the people that hailed 
Napoleon's appearance on the dais were deafen- 
ing. Bowing repeatedly on every side, he took 
his seat on the throne, while all present stood 
and remained uncovered. The guns then ceased, 
the music of the bands and the drummings and 
trumpetings of the battalions died away into 
silence. On that the ceremony of the day 
opened with the celebration of High Mass by the 
Archbishop of Tours. 

The religious portion of the pageant, we are 
told, " seemed to arouse no interest in Napoleon. 
His opera-glass wandered all the time over the 
immense multitude before him." His attention 
was not recalled until the Mass was over, when 
the delegates from the Electoral College, mar- 
shalled by the Master of the Ceremonies, as- 
cended the platform, and ranged themselves 
before the throne. A Deputy stepped forward, 
and after deep obeisance, in a loud resonant 



NAPOLEON SIGNS THE ACT 867 

voice read an address teeming with sentiments 
of patriotic attachment and expressing inviol- 
able fidelity towards the Emperor personally. 
Napoleon seemed to listen with interest, 
" marking his approbation with nods and 
smiles." The Deputy ceased speaking amidst 
rapturous applause, and then Arch- Chancellor 
Cambaceres, resplendent in a gorgeous orange- 
yellow robe, stood forward in front of Napoleon 
to notify officially the popular acceptance of the 
new national Constitution. He declared the 
total of the votes given in the Plebiscite to show 
a clear million in favour of the restoration of the 
Empire. There was a flourish of trumpets, and 
forthwith the chief herald proclaimed that the 
" Additional Act to the Constitution of the 
Empire " had been agreed to by the French 
people. 

Again from all round thundered out an 
artillery salute, and the whole assembly rose to 
their feet and cheered. A small gilded table 
was brought forward and placed before Napoleon, 
who, the Arch-Chancellor holding the parchment 
open, and Joseph Bonaparte presenting the pen, 
publicly ratified the Act with his formal signature. 
The air resounded once more with the cannon 
firing and noisy acclamations on all sides. 

Napoleon rose, when at length the cheering 
ceased, to address the assembly with one of his 
most impassioned dramatic harangues. " Em- 
peror, Consul, Soldier, I hold everything from 
25 



368 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

the people ! In prosperity and in adversity ; in 
the field, in the council ; in power, in exile, 
France has been the sole and constant object of 
my thoughts and actions ! " So he began. He 
closed in the same vein : " Frenchmen ! my 
will is that of my people ; my rights are theirs ; 
my honour, my glory, my happiness, can never 
be separated from the honour, glory, and happi- 
ness of France ! " 

Again came the outburst of rapturous applause. 
It subsided, and the Archbishop of Bourges, as 
Grand Almoner of the Empire, came forward. 
Kneeling before Napoleon he presented the 
Book of the Gospels, on which Napoleon solemnly 
took the Imperial Oath to observe the new 
Constitution. There only remained for Arch- 
Chancellor Cambac^res and the principal officers 
of State to take their oaths of allegiance to 
the Constitution and the Emperor, and after 
that a solemn Te Deum closed the political 
ceremony. 

It was now the turn of the Eagles and the 
Army. The civilian personages withdrew from 
the steps of the throne ; the electoral deputa- 
tions fell back ; leaving a clear open space in 
front. Immediately, as if by magic, the Eagles 
suddenly appeared ; long rows of them flashing 
and glittering in the brilliant sunshine. They 
were brought forward in procession, advancing 
in massed rows " resplendent and dazzling like 
gold." Carnot, Minister of the Interior, the 



SPRINGING FORWARD TO MEET THEM 369 

" Organiser of Victory " of the Armies of the 
Revolution, headed the procession, " clad in a 
Spanish white dress of great magnificence," 
carrying the First Eagle of the National Guard of 
Paris. Next him came Marshal Davout, Minister 
of War, carrying the Eagle of the 1st Regiment 
of the Line, and then Admiral Decres, Minister 
of Marine (as representing the French Navy), 
carrying the Eagle of Napoleon's 1st Regiment 
of Marines. General Count Friant (he fell at 
Waterloo), as Colonel-in-Chief, bore the Eagle 
of the Imperial Guard. Other officers of exalted 
rank bore other Eagles. 

Napoleon's demeanour, hitherto, for most 
of the time, formal and apathetic, altered in- 
stantaneously at the appearance of the Eagles. 
" He sprang from the throne, and, casting aside 
his purple mantle, rushed forward to meet his 
Eagles " ; amid a sudden hush that seemed 
to fall over the whole assembly at the sight. 
Then the momentary silence was broken. An 
enthusiastic shout went up as the Emperor, 
pressing forward impetuously, as though 
electrified with sudden energy, took up his 
station immediately in front of the array of 
soldiers, the elite of the veterans of the old 
Grand Army left alive, as they stood there 
formed up in an immense phalanx. To the 
sound of martial music the regimental deputa- 
tions fortliwith moved up and advanced to pass 
before him. Napoleon, with a gesture of deep 



370 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

reverence, took each Eagle into his own hands 
from the officer who had been carrying it, and 
then delivered it with stately formality to its 
future regimental bearer as the deputations in 
turn filed past him. 

He had a word for the men of every corps as 
each set of ten officers and men drew up before 
him. To some he said, glancing at the number 
of their regiment on their shakos, " I remember 
you well. You are my old companions of 
Italy ! "or, " You are my comrades of Egypt ! " 
and so on. Others he reminded of past days of 
distinction. " You were with me at Areola ! " 
he said to one group, or " at Rivoli ! " " at 
Austerlitz! " "at Friedland ! '* to others, as 
might be — his words, we are told, " inspiring 
the men with deep emotion." For each of the 
National Guard deputations he had also their 
little speech. To one detachment for instance, 
as it came up, he said : " You are my old com- 
panions from the Rhine ; you have been the 
foremost, the most courageous, the most un- 
fortunate in our disasters ; but I remember all ! ** 

The last Eagle presented, Napoleon called on 
the soldiers to take the Army Oath of fidelity 
to the Standard, using his customary Eagle 
oration formula. 

" Soldiers of the National Guard of the 
Empire ! " he began, " Soldiers of my Imperial 
Guard ! Soldiers of the Line on land and sea ! 
I entrust to your hands the Imperial Eagle! 



AMIDST A TUMULT OF ENTHUSIASM 371 

You swear here to defend it at the cost of your 
life's blood against the enemies of the nation. 
You swear that it will always be your guiding 
sign, your rallying point ! " 

Some of those nearest interrupted Napoleon 
with shouts of " We swear ! " He went on : 
*' You swear never to acknowledge any other 
standard ! " The shouts of " We swear ! " again 
broke in vociferously. 

Napoleon again went on : " You, Soldiers of 
the National Guard of Paris, swear never to 
permit the foreigner to desecrate again the 
capital of the Great Nation! To your courage 
I commit it ! " Cries of " We swear ! " 
repeated continuously amidst a tumult of 
clamour, once more burst forth. 

Napoleon continued and concluded, turning 
to his favourite Pretorians : " Soldiers of the 
Imperial Guard, swear to surpass yourselves in 
the campaign which is now about to open, to 
die round your Eagles rather than permit 
foreigners to dictate terms to your country ! " 
He ceased after that, and once again the air 
vibrated with shouts of " We swear ! We swear ! " 
and ejaculations of " Vive I'Empereur ! " from 
the soldiers and the throng of onlookers cram- 
ming the stands around.^ 

* The silken standard flags attached below the Eagles were 
plainer in design than the flags of 1804 and 1808, They were of 
the ordinary pattern of the national banner, three vertical bands 
of colovir, edged with golden fringe. Lettered in gold on the 
white central band of^the flag was the Imperial dedication, 



872 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

The military finale of the day was the march 
past of the assembled troops before the Em- 
peror, in slow time, headed by the Eagles. 
" Nothing could have been more imposing," 
says one of the spectators, " than this con- 
cluding display in the magnificent pageant. 
Amid the crash of military music, the blaze of 
martial decoration, the glitter of innumerable 
arms, 50,000 men passed by. The immense 
concourse of beholders, their prolonged shouts 
and cheers, the occasion, the Man, the mighty 
events which hung in suspense, all concurred 
to excite feelings and reflections which only 
such a scene could have produced." On the 
other hand, we have this from a colder critic 
of the scene : " The display was without heart, 
and theatrical; the vows of the soldiers were 
made without warmth. There was but little 
real enthusiasm : the shouts were not those of 
future victors of another Austerlitz and Wagram, 
and the Emperor knew it ! " Which are we to 
believe ? 

According to Savary, who was close beside 
him. Napoleon, for his part, was satisfied with 
the enthusiasm of the soldiers. " The Emperor 
left the Field of Mars confident that he might 
rely on the sentiments then manifested towards 
him, and from that moment his only care was 

worded similarly to the inscription on the older flags, and on 
the reverse the names of the battles in which the corps had taken 
part — " Austerlitz ", " Jena," etc. 



ON THE REGIMENTAL PARADES 373 

to meet the storm that was forming in 
Belgium." 

The new Eagles left Paris that night with their 
escorts. Each, on its arrival where its regiment 
was stationed, was received with elaborate 
ceremony, and formally presented on parade to 
the assembled officers and men ; a religious 
service being held in addition in some cases, at 
which all were sworn individually to give their 
lives in its defence. This, for instance, is what 
took place with one regiment, the 22nd of the 
Line, stationed with the advanced division of 
Grouchy's Army Corps on the Belgian frontier 
at Couvins, near Rocroy, in the Ardennes. 
" The new Eagle," describes one of the officers, 
" all fresh from the gilder's shop, was solemnly 
blessed in the church of Couvins ; then each 
soldier, touching it with his hand, swore individu- 
ally to defend it to the death. After the religious 
service the regiment formed in square, and the 
colonel delivered an address, in which he recalled 
the old glories of the 22nd of the Line, and 
expressed his conviction that the regiment would 
worthily uphold the old-time fame of the corps 
in the coming campaign. The glowing language 
was received with great emotion, and as of happy 
augury for the future." ^ 

* Napoleon left Paris for the front on the early morning of 
June 12, after spending several hours in his cabinet, issuing 
orders and making arrangements for the carrying on of the 
Government in his absence. Catilaincourt, acting for the time 
being as Foreign Minister, was with Napoleon until the last 



374 THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 

moment, and witnessed his departure. " The clock struck three, 
and daylight was beginning to appear. ' Farewell, Caulain- 
court 1 ' said the Emperor, holding out his hand to me, ' Fare- 
well ! We must conquer or die ! ' With hurried steps he passed 
through the apartments, his mind being evidently fully taken up 
with melancholy thoughts. On reaching the foot of the staircase, 
he cast a lingering look round him, and then threw himself into 
his carriage and drove away." 



CHAPTER XIII 

at waterloo 

"Ave Caesar! Morituri te Salutant!" 

The Eagles figure in four episodes in the story 
of Waterloo. 

They had their part at the outset in that in- 
tensely dramatic display on the morning of the 
battle, when, before the eyes of Wellington's 
soldiers, drawn up with muskets loaded and 
bayonets fixed, and guns in position ready to open 
fire. Napoleon passed his army in review ; the last 
parade of the Last Army on the day of its last 
battle. Said Napoleon himself afterwards, in 
words that are in keeping with the resplendent 
spectacle : " The earth seemed proud to bear 
so many brave men ! " (" La terre paraissait 
orgueilleuse de porter tant de braves ! ") 

It was a little after nine in the morning that 
the Last Army of Napoleon moved out from its 
bivouacs of the night before to take up its station 
for the battle. This is how a British hussar, 
who was looking on, describes the opening of the 
wonderful show : '' Marching in eleven columns 
they came up to the front and deployed with 

375 



876 AT WATERLOO 

rapidity, precision, and fine scenic effect. The 
drums beat, the bands played, the trumpets 
sounded. The light troops in front pressed for- 
ward, and the rattle of musketry was followed 
by the retreat of our horsemen and foot soldiers. 
Light wreaths of smoke curled upwards into the 
misty air, and through this thin veil the dense dark 
columns of the French infantry and the gay and 
gleaming squadrons of French horse were seen 
moving into their positions. Before them was 
the open valley, yet green with the heavy crops ; 
behind them dark fringes of wood, and a thick 
curtain of dreary cloud. 

" The French bands struck up so that we could 
distinctly hear them. Not long after, the 
enemy's skirmishers, backed by their supports, 
were thrown out ; extending as they advanced, 
they spread over the whole space before them. 
Now and then they saluted our ears with well- 
known music, the whistling of musket-balls. 
Their columns, preceded by mounted officers to 
take up the alignments, soon began to appear ; 
the bayonets flashing over dark masses at different 
points, accompanied by the rattling of drums 
and the clang of trumpets. 

*' They took post, their infantry in front, in 
two lines, 60 yards apart, flanked by lancers with 
their fluttering flags. In rear of the centre of 
the infantry wings were the cuirassiers, also in 
two lines. In rear of the cuirassiers, on the 
right, the lancers and chasseurs of the Imperial 



AS THEY MARCHED ON TO THE FIELD 377 

Guard, in their splendid but gaudy uniforms : 
the former clad in scarlet ; the latter, like hussars, 
in rifle-green, fur-trimmed pelisse, gold lace, 
bearskin cap. In rear of the cuirassiers, on the 
left, were the horse-grenadiers and dragoons of 
the Imperial Guard, with their dazzling arms. 
'Immediately in rear of the centre was the reserve, 
composed of the 6th Corps, in columns ; on the 
left, and on the right of the Genappe road, 
were two divisions of light cavalry. In rear of 
the whole was the infantry of the Imperial 
Guard in columns, a dense dark mass, which, with 
the 6th Corps and cavalry, were flanked by their 
numerous artillery. Nearly 72,000 men, and 
246 guns, ranged with matches lighted, gave an 
awful presage of the approaching conflict." 

Napoleon rode out to watch them as they 
deployed into position. He took his stand at 
the point where the columns reached the field 
and wheeled off to right and left to form up in 
readiness for the signal that should launch their 
massed ranks forward across the intervening 
valley against the British position in front. 
Marshal Soult, Chief of the General Staff, rode 
close behind Napoleon on one side ; Marshal 
Ney, in charge of the main attack that day, was 
on the other. In rear followed in glittering 
array the cavalcade of staff officers, with, dragged 
along after them, tied by a rope to a dragoon 
orderly, Napoleon's Waterloo guide, the inn- 
keeper De Coster. 



378 AT WATERLOO 

Hardly had Napoleon himself ever witnessed 
before the like of the tremendous display of 
enthusiasm that greeted his presence on the 
field on the morning of that final day. " The 
drums beat ; the trumpets sounded ; the bands 
struck up ' Veillons au salut de I'Empire.' As 
they passed Napoleon the standard-bearers 
drooped the Eagles ; the cavalrymen waved their 
sabres ; the infantrymen held on high their 
shakos on their bayonets. The roar of cheers 
dominated and drowned the beat of the drums 
and the blare of the trumpets. The ' Vive 
VEmpereurs ! ' followed with such vehemence 
and such rapidity that no commands could be 
heard. And what rendered the scene all the more 
solemn, all the more moving, was the fact that 
before us, a thousand paces away perhaps, we 
could see distinctly the dull red line [**la ligne 
rouge sombre"] of the English army." 

So one French officer (Captain Martin of the 
45th of the Line) describes. The shouts of 
*' Vive I'Empereur ! " says another, a veteran 
of Count d'Erlon's First Army Corps, " rose 
more vehemently, louder and longer than I ever 
heard before, for our men were determined that 
they should be heard among the brick-red lines 
which fringed the crest of Mont Saint-Jean." 

It was for the Eagles the counterpart of the 
Day of the Field of Mars, the culminating act of 
homage to Napoleon from the soldiers of the 
Grand Army. 



HIS IN LIFE AND DEATH 379 

" The sight of him," if we may use the words 
of Lamartine, " was for some a recompense for 
their death, for others an incitement to victory ! 
One heart beat between these men and the Em- 
peror. In such a moment they shared the same 
soul and the same cause ! When all is risked for 
one man, it is in him his followers live and die. 
The army was Napoleon ! Never before was 
it so entirely Napoleon as now. He was repudi- 
ated by Europe, and his army had adopted him 
with idolatry ; it voluntarily made itself the 
great martyr of his glory. At such a moment 
he must have felt himself more than man, more 
than a sovereign. His subjects only bowed to 
his power, Europe to his genius ; but his army 
bent in homage to the past, the present, and the 
future, and welcomed victory or defeat, the 
throne or death with its chief. It was deter- 
mined on everything, even on the sacrifice of 
itself, to restore him his Empire, or to render his 
last fall illustrious. Accomplices at Grenoble, 
Pretorians at Paris, victims at Waterloo : such 
a sentiment in the generals and officers of Napo- 
leon had in it nothing that was not in conformity 
with the habits and even the vices of humanity. 
His cause was their cause, his crime their crime, 
his power their power, his glory their glory. 
But the devotion of those 80,000 soldiers was 
more virtuous, for it was more disinterested. 
Who would know their names ? Who would pay 
them for the shedding of their blood ? The 



380 AT WATERLOO 

plain before them would not even preserve their 
bones ! To have inspired such a devotion was 
the greatness of Napoleon ; to evince it even to 
madness was the greatness of his Army ! " 

They knew, too, not a few of them, the stamp 
of men they were about to meet. Never before 
that day, of course, had Napoleon met British 
soldiers on the battlefield ; but there were 
others present who had, and a good many of 
them. 

Many a French regiment at Waterloo had old 
scores of their own to settle, past days to avenge. 
The 8th of the Line, the fate of whose " Eagle 
with the Golden Wreath " at Barrosa has been 
recorded, were on the field, and dipped their 
glittering new Eagle, received at the " Champ de 
Mai,^^ in salute as they passed Napoleon that 
morning. So too did the 82nd, whose former 
battalion Eagles from Martinique are at Chelsea 
now ; the 13th of the Line and the 51st, who lost 
their regimental Eagles in the Retiro arsenal of 
Madrid ; the 28th, who met their fate, and lost 
their Eagle under the bullets of the British 28th 
in the Pyrenees. Others were there who had 
fought against Wellington in Spain, and, more 
fortunate, had preserved their Eagles. Among 
these were the 47th, who on the battlefield at 
Barrosa lost and regained their Eagle ; and the 
105th, mindful yet of their terrible Salamanca 
experience of what dragoon swords in strong 
hands could do. The 105th were destined, 



SOME WHO HAD MET BEFORE 881 

soldiers and Eagle alike, to undergo a fate more 
fearful still, ere the sun should set that day. 

Two of the regiments that paraded before 
Napoleon to meet the soldiers of Wellington 
had met under fire the sailors of Nelson at 
Trafalgar : the 2nd of the Line, now in Jerome 
Bonaparte's division of Reille's Army Corps, 
and the 16th, serving with the Sixth Corps. A 
third regiment, the 70th, which did duty as 
marines at Trafalgar, was with Grouchy, not 
many miles away ; as was the 22nd of the Line, 
whose Eagle, taken at Salamanca, is at Chelsea 
Hospital, and the 34th, whose drum-major's staff 
is to this day a prized trophy of the British 34th 
(now the First Battalion of the Border Regi- 
ment), won in Spain, when, as it so befell, two 
regiments bearing the same number crossed 
bayonets on the battlefield/ 

The famous 84th of the Line were at Waterloo, 
with their proud legend, " Un contre dix," re- 
stored at the *' Champ de Mai,'' flaunting proudly 
on their new silken flag as the Eagle bent in 

1 Trafalgar, on the French side, it may be added by the way, 
had a distinguished representative at Waterloo in the person of 
the officer at the head of the Artillery of the Imperial Guard, 
General Drouot. He had fought against Nelson as a major of 
artillery doing duty in the French fleet. His ship was one of the 
few that escaped into Cadiz after the battle, whence he was 
recalled to join the Grand Army in the Jena campaign. Drouot 
was the officer who, during the retreat from Moscow — where he 
brought the artillery of the Guard through without losing a gtm — 
" washed his face and shaved in the open air, affixing his looking- 
glass to a gun-carriage, every day, regardless of the ther- 
mometer ! " 



882 AT WATERLOO 

salute to Napoleon ; also, the hardly less widely- 
renowned 46th, the corps of the First Grenadier 
of France, La Tour d'Auvergne, whose name was 
called at the head of the list at that morning's 
roll-call and answered with the customary answer, 
" Dead on the Field of Honour " ; also, too. Napo- 
leon's former-time favourite, the 75th, mindful 
still on that last day of their glorious youth when 
*' Le 75me arrive et bat I'ennemi" — a motto 
that an earlier colonel of the corps had proposed 
once to replace on the flag by " Veni, Vidi, Vici." 

The Old Guard paraded in their fighting kit, 
with, as usual, in their knapsacks their full-dress 
uniforms, carried in readiness to be put on for 
Napoleon's triumphal entry into Brussels. 

Drouet d'Erlon rode past at the head of the 
First Army Corps ; Count of the Empire in 
virtue of his rank as a general ; once upon a 
time the little son of the postmaster at Varennes, 
where Louis Seize and Marie Antoinette so piti- 
fully ended their attempted flight, harsh old 
Drouet, ex-sergeant of Cond^ dragoons, from 
whom he inherited his talent for soldiering. 
General Reille led past the Second Corps. He, 
curiously, had had something of a naval past. 
He had hardly forgotten that other battle-day 
morning, when he galloped on to the field of 
Austerlitz, and reported himself to the Emperor 
as having come direct from Cadiz, put ashore 
from the doomed French fleet of Admiral Ville- 
neuve just a week before it sailed to fight Trafal- 



NAPOLEON IN HIGH SPIRITS 383 

gar. Both Reille and his men, above all others, 
were burning with excitement and eagerness 
that day to get at the enemy. They had missed 
taking part either at Ligny or Quatre Bras, 
through contradictory orders which had kept 
them marching and counter-marching between 
the two battlefields ; unable to reach either 
in time. Smarting under the reproach that 
they had been useless in the campaign, though 
the pick of the Line was in their ranks, the 
men one and all were burning to retrieve their 
reputation. 

Count Lobau — he took his name from the island 
in the Danube which played so vital a part in 
the battle of Aspern^ — was at the head of the 
Sixth Corps, the third of Napoleon's grand 
divisions of the army at Waterloo. Formerly 
General Mouton, Napoleon renamed him when 
he made him a Count for his skill and heroism 
at Aspern. *' Mon Mouton," said Napoleon 
of him once as he watched the general in action, 
** est un lion.'* 

Napoleon himself was in the highest spirits, 
full of pride and confidence. In that mood had 
he announced his intention of holding the review. 
There was no need to hurry, he said; Bliicher 
and Wellington had been driven apart. The 
parade would pass the time while waiting for the 
soaked ground to get dry, and make it easier for 
the guns to move from point to point. And 
there was also this. The spectacle would have 
26 



384 AT WATERLOO 

assuredly a disquieting effect on the Dutch and 
Belgians in Wellington's army. Many of the 
men in front of him had served with the Eagles 
in former days : all stood nervously in awe, it 
was notorious, of the mighty name and reputa- 
tion of Napoleon. Hesitating, as some were 
known to be, between their fears and their pa- 
triotism, the influence of the imposing spectacle 
might well — believed Napoleon — turn the scale 
and induce them to come over. 

This was Napoleon's plan for the battle, as 
outlined that morning to his brother Jerome. 
First would be the general preparation for attack 
by a tremendous cannonade all along the line 
from massed batteries. On that, the two army 
corps of D'Erlon and Reille would advance 
simultaneously and assault in front, supported 
by cavalry charges of cuirassiers. Then, if the 
English had not yet been beaten, would follow 
the final assault, the crushing blow that it would 
be impossible to resist ; to be delivered by the 
remaining army corps of Lobau and the Young 
Guard, supported by the Middle Guard and the 
Old Guard. So Napoleon planned to fight and 
win at Waterloo. 

Of the ultimate issue of the day he flattered 
himself there could be no two opinions. " At 
the last I have them, these English ! " " (En- 
fin je les tiens, ces Anglais ! ") he exclaimed 
jubilantly as he reconnoitred Wellington's posi- 
tion in the early morning. At breakfast with 



"THE GAME IS WITH US" 385 

the two Marshals, Soultand Ney, he declared that 
the odds were 90 to 10 in his favour. " Welling- 
ton," he said to Ney, '' has throwai the dice, and 
the game is with us." 

He turned fiercely on Soult, who, knowing the 
mettle of the British soldier from experience, 
had entreated him to recall Grouchy' s 30,000 
men from watching the Prussians near Wavre. 

" You think because Wellington has defeated 
you, that he must be a very great general ! I 
tell you he is a bad general, and the English are 
but poor troops ! This, for us, will only be an 
affair of a dejeuner — a picnic ! " 

" I hope so," was all that Soult said in reply. 

At that moment Reille and General Foy, 
experienced Peninsular veterans both, whose 
opinions should have had weight, were announced. 
Said Reille, in reply to Napoleon's asking what 
he thought : "If well placed, as Wellington 
knows how to draw up his men, and if attacked 
in front, the English infantry is invincible, by 
reason of its calm tenacity and the superiority 
of its fire. Before coming to close quarters with 
the bayonet we must expect to see half the 
assaulting troops out of action." 

Interposed Foy : " Wellington never shows 
his troops, but if he is yonder, I must warn your 
Majesty that the English infantry in close com- 
bat is the very devil ! " (" L'infanterie Anglaise 
en duel c'est le diable ! ") 

Napoleon lost his temper. With an exclama- 



38G AT WATERLOO 

tion of angry incredulity he rose hastily from 
the breakfast table, and the party broke up. 

He spent a great part of the day watching the 
battle from a little mound, a short distance from 
the farm of Rossomme ; mostly pacing to and 
fro, his hands behind his back ; at times violently 
taking snuff, occasionally gesticulating excitedly. 
Near by was a kitchen table from the farmhouse, 
covered with maps weighted down with stones, 
with a chair placed on some straw, on which at 
intervals he rested. Soult kept ever near at 
hand, and the staff remained a little in rear. 
It was not until the afternoon was well advanced 
that Napoleon got again on horseback. 

As related by the guide De Coster in conversa- 
tion with an English questioner a few months 
after Waterloo, this is what passed : 

"He had frequent communications with his 
aides de camp during the day ? " 

*' Every moment." 

" And when they reported what was going 
on?" 

" His orders were always ' Avancez ! ' " 

*' Did he eat or drink during the day ? " 

" No ! " 

* Did he take snuff ? " 

*' In abundance." 

*'Did he talk much ? ' 

'^ Never, except when he gave orders.'* 

" What was the general character of his coun- 
tenance during the day ? " 



WHEN THE LAST CHARGE FAILED 387 

" Riante ! — till the last charge failed." 

" How did he look then ? '* 

" Blanc-mort / " 

*' Did he say ' Sawce qui peut ' ? " 

" No ! When he saw the English infantry rush 
forward, and the cavalry in the intermediate 
spaces coming down the hill, he said : ' A present 
il est fini. Sauvons-nous ! 



5 »5 1 



^ Napoleon — it may be of general interest to add — passed the 
whole of the day, between the review in the forenoon and late 
in the afternoon when he rode forward to witness the Guard 
start for the last charge, on the ridge of high ground near Ros- 
somme. So the memoirs of the officers of his staff unanimously 
record. At no time was he near the so-called " observatory," in 
regard to which there has recently been a controversy, based on 
the publication of a letter by the eminent sm'geon. Sir Charles 
Bell, who was at Waterloo, and rendered very valuable service to 
the wounded. This is the story as told in his letter by Dr. Bell : 

" About half a mile of ascent brought us to the position of 
Bonaparte. This is the highest ground in the Pays Bas. I 
climbed up one of the pillars of the scaffolding, as I was wont 
to do after birds' nests. . . . We got a ladder from the farm-court ; 
it reached near the first platform. I mounted and climbed with 
some difficulty ; none of the rest would venture. . . . The view 
was magnificent. I was only one-third up the machine, yet it 
was a giddy height. Here Bonaparte stood surveying the field. 

" This position of Bonaparte is most excellent ; the machine 
had been placed by the side of the road, but he ordered it to be 
shifted. The shifting of this scaffolding shows sufficiently the 
power of confidence and the resolution of the man. It is about 
sixty feet in height. I climbed upon it about four times the 
length of my body, by exact measurement, and this was only the 
first stage. I was filled with admiration for a man of his habit 
of life who could stand perched on a height of sixty-five feet 
above everything, and contemplate, see, and manage such a 
scene." 

Mention of the scaffold-platform is also made by Sir Walter 
Scott, who rode over the field in August 1815. Sir Walter gives 
this version, in a letter to the Duke of Buccleuch : 

" The story of his (Napoleon's) having an observatory erected 



388 AT WATERLOO 

How Wellington's Trophies were won 

It was in Napoleon's second grand attack that 
cur two Waterloo Eagle-trophies, the most 
famous spoils ever won by the British Army, 
came into Wellington's hands. 

The first attack began about half-past eleven, 
when Reille's corps, on the French left, made its 
opening effort against Hougoumont. Intended 
by Napoleon at the outset rather as a feint to 
mislead Wellington into fixing his attention on 
that side, the stubborn defence of Hougoumont 
involved the Second Corps in a struggle that 
kept it fully occupied for the whole day ; unable 
to take part or be of use elsewhere. 

The second grand attack took place shortly 

for him is a mistake. There is such a thing, and he repaired to 
it diiring the action ; but it was built or erected some months 
before, for the purpose of a trigonometrical survey of the country, 
by the King of the Netherlands." 

Thomas Kelly, an enterprising London publisher, went further. 
He had a pictvire of the erection drawn, and brought it out as a 
popular print in October 18L5, under the title of " Bonaparte's 
Observatory to view the Battle of Waterloo." The print shows 
a three-tiered structure, apparently quite lately constructed, 
with three platforms, and ladders leading from one platform to 
the other. Napoleon himself is depicted on top, his spy-glass at 
his eye, and with two staff officers in attendance. 

There certainly was a structure of the kind on the field. 
Such a thing, in a dilapidated condition, is to be seen in miniature 
on the Siborne model of the battlefield at the Royal United 
Service Institution. It is made to scale, and in its essential 
features bears out Dr. Bell's description. It stands close to the 
'* wood of Callois " by the Nivelle road, rather more than a mile 
to the south of Hougoimiont. It has only one platform, whence 
it would overlook the trees and give a good view of the battle. 

On the other hand, in addition to tlie silence of all Na- 



A DARK OBJECT IN THE HAZE 389 

after two in the afternoon, when Marshal Ney 
made his tremendous onslaught with thirty- three 
battalions of Drouet d'Erlon's First Army 
Corps on the left-centre of the British posi- 
tion, to the east of the Charleroi road, where 
Picton's men held the ground. 

The launching of Ney's attack just then came 
about as the result of Napoleon's sudden and 
disquieting discovery that the Prussians were 
approaching. It was to have opened an hour 
earlier, but, because of that, had been held back 
at the last moment. Napoleon, while looking 
round with the idea that Grouchy's trooj^s might 
be in sight in that quarter, made the discovery 
with his own eyes. Those round him, indeed, at 
first doubted what the dark object — which ap- 
peared in the hazy atmosphere like a shadow on 
the high ground near Mont Saint-Lambert, some 

poleon's officers on the subject, we have this plain statement 
from Frances Lady Shelley, an intimate friend of the Duke of 
Wellington, who was in Paris during the occupation after the 
battle and was also taken over the battlefield by the Dtike of 
Richmond some three months after Waterloo. It appears in her 
recently published Diary, at p. 173, and may be taken as set- 
tling the fate of the story of "this towering and massive perch," 
"that wonderful scaffold," "that huge scaffolding," "part of 
Napoleon's equipment at Waterloo," as a modern historical 
writer calls it. 

This is what Lady Shelley wrote at the time : 
" Throughout the battle of Waterloo Napoleon remained 
on a mound, within cannon shot, but beyond the range of muske- 
try fire. He certainly was not in the observatory after the battle 
began ; nor could he have from^ that spot directed the move- 
ments of his troops. That observatory was built for topo- 
graphical reasons by a former Governor of the Netherlands 
something like a century ago." 



390 AT WATERLOO 

six miles off to the north-east — really was. Soult 
at first could make out nothing ; then he was 
positive it was a column of troops — probably 
Grouchy 's. Thfe staff, scanning the suspicious 
neighbourhood with their telescopes, asserted 
that what the Emperor saw was only a wood. 
The arrival of some hussars with a Prussian 
prisoner, whom they had just captured while 
trying to get round with a despatch from Biilow 
to Wellington to announce the approach of the 
Prussian Fourth Corps, settled the question. 

Napoleon paced backwards and forwards for 
a minute, taking pinches of snuff incessantly. 
Then he ordered off his Light Cavalry to recon- 
noitre ; dictated to Soult an urgent message 
recalling Grouchy ; and sent off an aide de 
camp to tell Lobau to wheel the Sixth Corps to 
the right, facing towards Saint-Lambert. After 
that he gave Ney orders to open his attack. 

Ney took in hand his work forthwith, and 
at once a terrific cannonade opened. Eighty 
French field-guns, a third of Napoleon's artillery 
on the field, began firing together from the 
plateau in front of La Belle Alliance ; storming 
furiously with shot and shell to break down 
the British resistance, and clear the way for 
the onset of the charging columns. Without 
slackening an instant the guns thundered in- 
cessantly for nearly an hour ; getting back from 
the British artillery in reply a fire that was at 
least as vigorous and no less effective. 



"EN AVANT!" 'VIVE L'EMPEREUR ! " 391 

Then Ney gave the word to advance. 

Immediately the French infantry were on the 
move. They went forward massed in four 
divisions ; in four solid columns of from four to 
five thousand men each, advancing en Schelon 
from the left, with intervals between of about 
four hundred paces. Eight battalions made up 
each column, except that of the second division, 
which had nine. The battalions stood drawn 
up in lines, three deep, with a front of two hun- 
dred files. They were packed closely, one behind 
the other ; with intervals between, from front 
to rear, of only five paces. So closely were they 
wedged together, that there was barely room 
between the battalions for the company officers. 
Two brigadiers, Quiot and Bourgeois, led the 
left column, General Allix, their chief, being 
elsewhere ; General Donzelot, a keen soldier 
and universally popular as the best hearted and 
most genial of good fellows, headed the second 
column ; Marcognet, a grim, hard-bitten vete- 
ran, a prime favourite with Marshal Ney for 
his dogged determination in action, had the 
third ; General Durutte was in charge of the 
fourth, away to the right. 

With their battalion-drums jauntily rattling 
out the pas de charge, amid excited cries and 
loud exultant shouts of " En avant ! " " Vive 
I'Empereur ! " the columns stepped off. Ahead 
of them raced forward at a run swarming 
crowds of tirailleurs ; extending fan-wise as they 



392 AT WATERLOO 

went, spreading out widely across the front in 
skirmishing array. The four massed columns 
surged quickly forward and over the edge of 
the plateau down the slope on to the space of 
shallow valley between the armies. As they 
did so, from the moment they crossed the crest- 
line and dipped below, a fierce hurricane of fire 
beat in their faces. Round-shot and shrapnel 
swept the columns through and through, tearing 
long bloody lanes through the densely packed 
masses of men. 

Marshal Ney accompanied the first column 
for some part of the way, riding by the side 
of Drouet d'Erlon. 

As they crossed the intervening ground below, 
the death-dealing British guns fired down on 
them incessantly, but in spite of all, they stout- 
heartedly moved forward, without checking 
their pace. It was terribly toilsome work in 
places : now they had to plough laboriously over 
sodden and slippery ground ; now to trample 
their way through cornfields with standing grain- 
crops nearly breast-high, or, where trodden 
down, tangling round the men's feet. 

Quiot's brigade turned off to attack La Haye 
Sainte, but the rest of the division. Bourgeois' 
men and the three other columns, held on their 
way, moving in dense phalanxes of gleaming 
bayonets up the slopes. 

The second column, Donzelot's, reached the top 
a little in advance of the others, and was met 



THE HIGHLANDERS DASH FORWARD 393 

by Kempt's brigade of Picton's troops, which 
charged it and forced it to yield ground. 

A moment later Marcognet's column reached 
the British line, coming up over the crest of the 
hill immediately in front of Picton's Highland 
Brigade. 

Received with a furious outburst of musketry 
from all along the extended British line, Mar- 
cognet's leading files were thrown into some 
confusion by the hail of bullets. They were, 
however, veterans, and though their ranks were 
shaken, they still pressed on, amid a tumult of 
fierce cries and shouts of " Vive I'Empereur ! " 
and the wild clash and rattle of their drums. 

But they got no farther. The British briga- 
dier on the spot, Sir Dennis Pack, called on the 
nearest Highland regiment, the 92nd, to charge 
them with the bayonet. A moment after that, 
all unexpectedly, the cavalry of the Union 
Brigade were on them. 

The Highlanders dashed forward with exultant 
cheers and levelled bayonets, taking the French 
volley that met them without firing back a shot. 
They did not, however, get up to the French, 
nor actually cross steel on steel. As the High- 
landers got within a dozen yards the column 
suddenly stopped short, and some of the men in 
front seemed suddenly to be panic-stricken. A 
moment before all were madly yelling out : 
" Forward ! " " Victory ! " Now they began to 
turn their backs in disorder. 



394 AT WATERLOO 

It was iiot, though, at the sight of the bayonets. 
They had seen and heard something else. The 
thundering beat of approaching horse-hoofs 
shook the ground. 

With a trampling turmoil of horse-hoofs the 
cavalrymen of the British Union Brigade burst 
on the scene, galloping forward from their 
former post in rear of Picton's infantry. The 
Scots Greys were on the left ; the Inniskillings 
in the centre ; the Royal Dragoons on the right. 

Marcognet's men heard their approach, and 
the next moment saw the horsemen coming at 
them. The unexpected sight startled and stag- 
gered them ; and some of those in the front line 
gave way. The alarm spread at once, as most 
of the rest realised what was approaching. The 
whole column swayed to and fro violently. 
Then it lost cohesion and began to roll back in 
mingled ranks down-hill. 

A moment later the Greys were among them. 
*' The smoke in which the head of the French 
column was enshrouded had not cleared away 
when the Greys dashed into the mass. 

" Highlanders and Greys charged together, 
while shrill and wild from the Highland ranks 
sounded the mountain pipe, mingled with shouts 
of ' Scotland for ever ! ' " So an officer describes. 
The men of the 92nd seized hold of the stirrup- 
leathers of the horsemen, and charged with them. 
" All rushed forward, leaving none but the dis- 
abled in their rear." 



A SHOUT OF "ATTENTION! CAVALRY!" 395 

" The dragoons," describes Captain Siborne, 
*' having the advantage of the descent, appeared 
to mow down the mass, which, bending under 
the pressure, quickly spread itself outwards in 
all directions. Yet in that mass were many 
gallant spirits who could not be brought to 
yield without a struggle ; and these fought 
bravely to the death." 

Says some one on the French side : " We 
heard a shout of ' Attention ! Cavalry 1 ' 
Almost at the same instant a crowd of red 
dragoons mounted on grey horses swept down 
upon us like the wind. Those who had straggled 
were cut to pieces without mercy. They did 
not fall upon our columns to ride through and 
break us up — we were too deep and massive for 
that ; but they came down between the divisions, 
slashing right and left with their sabres and 
spurring their horses into the flanks of the 
columns to cut them in two. Though they did 
not succeed in this, they killed great numbers 
and threw us into confusion." 

The foremost French battalion of Marcognet's 
column was the 45th of the Line, one of Napo- 
leon's favourite corps, recruited in the capital, 
and always spoken of by him as " Mes braves 
Enfants de Paris." Said he of them indeed 
once, when pointing them out to the Russian 
Envoy at the grand review of June 1810 : 
*' Mark those soldiers, Prince : that is my 45th — 
my brave children of Paris ! If ever cartridges 



396 AT WATERLOO 

are burned between my brother the Emperor of 
Russia and me, I will show him the efficiency of 
my 45th. It was they who stormed your 
Russian batteries at Austerlitz. They are 
scamps [" des vauriens "] off duty, but lions on 
campaign ; you should see their dash, their 
intrepidity ; above all, their cheerfulness under 
fire ! " Small men — " ideal voltigeurs " Napo- 
leon also called the 45th — they stood a poor chance 
against the stalwart swordsmen of the Scots 
Greys. 

It was they who were to yield up the first of 
our British Eagle-trophies of Waterloo. The 
prize fell to a non-commissioned officer of the 
Greys, Sergeant Charles Ewart, a Kilmarnock 
man, who achieved the feat of taking it single- 
handed. Ewart, an athletic fellow of splendid 
physique and herculean strength, six feet four 
in his stockings, and a notable sdbreur, was 
plunging through the struggling press of in- 
fantry, slashing out to right and left, when he 
caught sight of the Eagle of the 45th, with its 
gorgeous new silken flag, bearing the glittering 
inscription in letters of gold — " Austerlitz, 
Jena, Friedland, Essling, Wagram." It was being 
hurried away to the rear for safety in the 
middle of a small band of devoted men who 
surrounded it, and were fighting hard with 
their bayonets to keep the British off. Sergeant 
Ewart saw that and rode straight for the Eagle- 
bearer. Parrying the bayonet-thrusts at him 




THE FIGHT FOR THE STANDARD. 

Sergeant Ewart o£ tlie Scots Greys taking tlie Eagle o£ the doth at Waterloo. 
From the picture by R. Anilsell, A.R.A., at Royal Hospital, Chelsea. 



39G] 



HOW EWART TOOK THE EAGLE 397 

as he got up, he cut down the French officer 
who carried the Eagle, and then had a fight with 
two others. These, first one and then the other, 
were killed or disabled by the sergeant, who in 
the end carried off the splendid trophy triumph- 
antly. 

Ewart himself, in a letter to his father, tells 
his own story of the taking of the Eagle : 

" He and I had a hard contest for it. He 
thrust for my groin ; I parried it off and cut him 
through the head, after which I was attacked by 
one of their lancers, who threw his lance at me, 
but missed the mark by my throwing it off 
with my sword, at my right side. Then I cut 
him from the chin upwards, which went through 
his teeth. Next I was attacked by a foot- 
soldier, who, after firing at me, charged me 
with his bayonet ; but he very soon lost the 
combat, for I parried it and cut him down 
through the head. That finished the contest 
for the Eagle." 

Napoleon was watching the progress of the 
fight through his glasses. He witnessed the 
charge of the Scots Greys — unaware, of course, 
that it was his pet " Enfants de Paris " who were 
undergoing their fate. " Qu'ils sont terribles 
ces chevaux gris ! " was the exclamation that, 
according to the guide De Coster, fell from 
Napoleon's lips at the sight. The Greys cut 
his unlucky 45th to pieces, and had over- 
thrown the rest of Marcognet's Division in 



^98 AT WATERLOO 

three minutes. " In three rainutes," says a 
British officer in the charge, " the column was 
totally overthrown and numbers of them taken 
prisoners." 

Sabring their way through the remnants of 
the 45th, and leaving the prisoners to be secured 
by the Highlanders, the Greys then charged the 
supporting regiment, the 25th of the Line. 
These, " lost in amazement at the suddenness 
and wildness of the charge and its terrific effect 
on their comrades on the higher ground in front," 
were caught in the act of trying to form square. 
Some of them fired a few shots at the dragoons, 
but the impetus of the first charge carried the 
Greys in among them with a rush, driving in 
the foremost ranks and making the rest of 
the column in rear roll back and break up. 
In panic and despair they threw down their 
muskets and, according to a British officer, 
" surrendered in crowds." The Eagle of the 25th, 
however, was saved. It was carried safely off 
the field, and is now one of the Napoleonic relics 
at the Invalides. 

Ewart was at once sent to Brussels with the 
trophy, and on his arrival carried it through the 
crowded streets " amidst the acclamations of 
thousands of spectators who saw it." He was 
given an ensigncy in the 3rd Royal Veteran 
Battalion in recognition of his exploit. The 
sword he used at Waterloo is now among the 
treasures of Chelsea Hospital, and Ewart' s old 



THE CHARGE OF THE "ROYALS" 399 



regiment bears embroidered on its standard a 
French Eagle, with the legend " Waterloo." ^ 

Within a few moments of Sergeant Ewart 
captm'ing the Eagle of the 45th, an officer of the 
Royal Dragoons, Captain A. K. Clark (afterwards 
Sir A. K. Clark- Kennedy) took, also in hand-to- 
hand fight, the other Eagle sent home by Welling- 
ton from Waterloo — that of the 105th of the 
Line, the leading regiment of Bourgeois' 
Brigade. 

The Royals, on the right of the Union Brigade, 
came down on the French left column. That, as 
yet, had had no enemy in front of it, and was 
advancing with cheers and shouts of triumph 
across the crest-line of the ridge. It over- 
lapped and extended beyond the flank of what 
had been Picton's line, and so far had only been 
fired at from a distance by artillery and part of 
the 95th. Suddenly the French were startled by 
the apparition of a mass of cavalry quite near ; 
coming on within eighty or ninety yards of them — 
emerging from the battle- smoke at a gallop. 

The sight took them completely by surprise. 

^ The " f anion " of the second battalion of the 45th shared 
the fate of the regimental Eagle. It fell to Private Wheeler 
of the 28th, the " Slashers," the present 1st Battalion of the 
Gloucestershire Regiment. The 28th, on the left of Picton's 
line, had, like the Highlanders, charged forward among the 
French, following close after the Greys. Wheeler, after a fierce 
fight with the bearer of the " f anion," in which he was severely 
wounded, bayoneted the French sergeant and carried ofE the 
trophy. It disappeared in an unexplained manner some days later, 
during Wellington's march on Paris, while being forwarded to 
the Duke's head- quarters. 
27 



400 AT WATERLOO 

The loud shouts of triumph stopped abruptly. 
" The head of the column," describes one of the 
Royals, " appeared to be seized with a panic, 
gave us a fire which brought down about twenty 
men, went instantly about, and endeavoured to 
regain the opposite side of the hedges." They 
had just crossed the Wavre road along the slope, 
about halfway up. 

It was the men of one corps, the 105th of the 
Line, who so turned back. They, of all in the 
regiments of Napoleon's army, knew what it 
was to be charged by cavalry. They had had 
one fearful experience of what cold steel in 
strong hands could do, and wanted no second. 
They were the same 105th whom Wellington's 
Hanoverian Dragoons, in the pursuit after Sala- 
manca, had ridden down and slaughtered so 
mercilessly. Once more the fearful fate was 
about to overtake them — was at hand, was on 
them ! In the ranks were many veterans who 
had served in the 105th in Spain before 1814, 
and had rejoined on Napoleon's return from 
Elba. The slaughter after Salamanca was a 
grim and horrifying memory in the regiment 
that every man shuddered to recall. It all came 
back vividly to them now, as the flashing sabres 
of the Royal Dragoons burst into view, making 
for them across the ridge. The whole regiment 
gave back and broke, turning for help to the 
supporting 28th in rear. 

But they were not able to reach their refuge 



HOW THE SECOND EAGLE WAS TAKEN 401 

in time. Without drawing rein tlie Royals 
pressed home their charge. They were into the 
105th in a moment, cutting them down on all 
sides. 

In that melee the Eagle of the 105th met its 
fate. Captain Clark-Kennedy himself describes 
how that came about — how he came to take the 
Eagle. He was in command of the centre 
squadron, leading through the thick of the 
ill-fated infantrymen. 

" I did not see the Eagle and Colour (for there 
were two Colours, but only one with an Eagle) 
until we had been probably five or six minutes 
engaged. It must, I should think, have been 
originally about the centre of the column, and 
got uncovered from the change of direction. 
When I first saw it, it was perhaps about forty 
yards to my left, and a little in my front. The 
officer who carried it, and his companions, were 
moving with their backs towards me, and en- 
deavouring to force their way through the crowd. 

" I gave the order to my squadron, ' Right 
shoulders forward ! Attack the Colour ! ' lead- 
ing direct on the point myself. On reaching 
it I ran my sword into the officer's right side, 
a little above the hip- joint. He was a little to 
my left side, and he fell to that side, with the 
Eagle across my horse's head. I tried to catch 
it with my left hand, but could only touch the 
fringe of the flag ; and it is probable it would 
have fallen to the ground, had it not been pre- 



402 AT WATERLOO 

vented by the neck of Corporal Styles' horse, 
who came close up on my left at the instant, 
and against which it fell. Corporal Styles was 
standard-coverer : his post was immediately 
behind me, and his duty to follow wherever 
I led. 

" When I first saw the Eagle, I gave the order 
' Right shoulders forward ! Attack the Colour ! ' 
and on running the officer through the body 
I called out twice together, ' Secure the Colour ! 
Secure the Colour ! It belongs to me ! ' This 
order was addressed to some men close to me, 
of whom Corporal Styles was one. 

" On taking up the Eagle I endeavoured to 
break the Eagle off the pole, with the intention 
of putting it into the breast of my coat, but I 
could not break it. Corporal Styles said, ' Pray, 
sir, do not break it,' on which I replied, *Very 
well. Carry it to the rear as fast as you can. It 
belongs to me ! ' " 

Taking hold of the Eagle, Corporal Styles 
turned away. He had a fight to get through 
with it, and had, we are told, literally to cut 
his way back to safety. 

Captain Clark-Kennedy, who received two 
wounds and had two horses killed under him, 
was given the C.B. He was granted later, as 
an augmentation to his family arms, the re- 
presentation of a Napoleonic Eagle and flag ; 
with for crest a " demi-dragoon holding a flag 
with an Eagle on it." Corporal Styles was ap- 



WHERE ANOTHER FLAG WAS FOUND 403 

pointed to an ensigncy in the West India Regi- 
ment. The Royal Dragoons wear the device of 
a Napoleonic Eagle as collar-badge, and bear 
an Eagle embroidered on their standard. 

As with the 45th, so with the 105th — both 
battalions of each regiment lost their colours ; 
the regimental Eagle and the *' f anion " of the 
second battalion. The *'fanion" of the 105th, 
described as "a dark blue silken flag, with on it 
the words ' 105me Regiment d'Infanterie de 
Ligne, ' '* came into British possession in a manner 
that is not clear. It was not taken in fight 
by the Royals. Was it picked up on the field 
after the battle by some camp-follower and 
sold ? Its existence and whereabouts remained 
unknown until some twenty-four years after- 
wards. As it happened, curiously, General Clark- 
Kennedy, as he then was, himself lighted upon 
it by chance, hanging in the hall of Sir Walter 
Scott's home at Abbotsford. How it got there, 
in spite of all inquiries, the general was unable 
to discover. 

Two other Eagles, it would appear, had ad- 
ventures at Waterloo. 

One, according to an unconfirmed story, was 
taken and lost by the Inniskillings, who charged 
the 54th and 55th of the Line, stationed at the 
rear of Bourgeois' Brigade, just after the Royals 
attacked the leading battalion of that column. 
A trooper named Penfold claimed to have taken 
the Eagle of one of the two regiments, " After 



404 AT WATERLOO 

we charged," he said, " I saw an Eagle which I 
rode up to, and seized hold of it. The man who 
bore it would not give it up, and I dragged him 
along by it for a considerable distance. Then 
the pole broke about the middle, and I carried 
off the Eagle. Immediately after that I saw 
a comrade, Hassard, in difficulties, and, giving 
the Eagle to a young soldier of the Inniskillings, 
I went to his aid. The Eagle got dropped and 
lost." 

The second of these two Eagles is said to have 
been captured by the Blues, the Royal Horse 
Guards, and then lost in much the same way. 
" A private in the Blues," records Wellington's 
Supplemental Despatches, " killed a French officer 
and took an Eagle; but his own horse being 
killed, he could not keep it." A French officer 
also mentions the taking of the Eagle by the 
Blues and its recovery. 

About the time that the ill-fated 45th of the 
Line and the 105th lost their Eagles in front 
of Picton's Division, another Eagle elsewhere 
had a narrow escape from capture, being saved 
by its colonel's personal act. That took place 
in front of Hougoumont, with the Eagle of the 
1st of the Line. The regiment was in Jerome 
Bonaparte's Division in front of Hougoumont, 
and had made an attack on the outbuildings 
of the chS-teau, which the defenders had beaten off. 
At the last moment, as the French assault re- 
coiled, the Eagle-bearer and his two fellows 



THE EAGLES OF THE GUARD 405 

were shot down together. The battalion fell 
back, leaving the Eagle lying on the ground in 
the open, beside its dead guardians. For the 
moment, apparently, the British defenders did 
not see the trophy thus left within their reach. 
Before they did so Colonel Cubieres, of the 1st 
of the Line, discovered its loss and saw where it 
had fallen. He ran out by himself, picked up 
the Eagle, and, escaping harm of any kind, carried 
it back to the regiment. According to M. 
Thiers, " the English officers checked the fire 
of their men while the deed was being performed, 
in admiration of his courage" — an interesting 
detail in the story if true ! 

The Last Attack and After : The Eagles of 
THE Guard 

In the third episode in the story of Waterloo 
we strike another note. How the Eagles of the 
Guard fared in the closing hour of the battle, 
when Napoleon staked his last desperate throw 
and lost — that final phase remains to tell. 

Fourteen Eagles of the Guard were on the 
field. All came safely through the battle and 
survived the risks and perils of the night retreat 
that followed, to recross the frontier with the 
rallied remnants of the stricken host. Only 
three, however, are now in existence : one at 
the Invalides ; the other two in private keeping 
in France. The remaining eleven were, some 



406 AT WATERLOO 

of them at any rate, destroyed by the officers 
on the final disbanding of the Grand Army, 
refusing to give them up to the emissaries of the 
Bourbon regime sent to receive them for con- 
veyance to Vincennes, where as many as could 
be got hold of among the regimental Eagles 
underwent their fate by fire. 

Five Eagles went forward in the great last- 
hope attack of the Guard against the centre of 
Wellington's position, the overthrow of which 
cost Napoleon the battle. They were the Eagles 
of the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers of the Guard, and 
of three regiments of the Chasseurs of the Guard, 
the 1st, 8rd, and 4th. All five are among those 
that have disappeared since Waterloo. 

Close beside the Eagle of the 3rd Grenadiers 
it was that Marshal Ney fought so heroically, as 
he led in person the historic grand attack of the 
Imperial Guard. His fifth horse was shot under 
Ney in the advance, and he then drew his sword 
and strode forward on foot alongside the Eagle- 
bearer. So he led until the column reeled back 
and broke under the sudden attack of the British 
Guards across the crest-line of the slope. At 
that moment Ney lost his footing, and fell in the 
confusion. " He disappeared," says a French 
officer, "just at the moment that the Guard gave 
way. But he was up again in a moment, and 
with voice and gesture strove his hardest to rally 
them." It was to no purpose. The great 
column wavered, swayed, and then fell apart in 



NEY'S LAST HEROIC EFFORT 407 

disorder. *' Mitraillee, fusillee, reduit a quinze 
ou seize cent hommes, la Garde recule I '* Ney 
was swept off his feet in the retreat, and borne 
backwards ; carried away in the rush of the 
fugitives, struggling helplessly in the crowd. 
" Bathed in perspiration, his eyes blazing with 
indignation, foaming at the mouth, his uniform 
torn open, one of his epaulets cut away by a 
sabre-slash, his star of the Legion of Honour 
dented by a bullet, bleeding, muddy, heroic, 
holding a broken sword in his hand, he shouted 
to the men, ' See how a Marshal of France dies 
on the battlefield ! ' But it was in vain : he 
did not die." 

Then Ney, mounting a trooper's horse, made 
for a regiment near, whose men were falling 
back in fair order, with their Eagle borne defi- 
antly in their midst — the 8th of the Line. With 
them was a battalion of the 95th, also displaying 
their Eagle gallantly as they, too, tried to with- 
draw in regular formation. Ney made them 
face about, and put himself at their head. 
He appealed to them in the words he had used 
just before, when trying to rally the Guard : 
" Suivez moi, camarades. Je vais vous montrer 
comment meurt un Mar^chal de France sur le 
champ de bataille ! " The men turned to face 
the enemy, with a shout of " Vive le Mar^chal 
Ney ! " They charged forward towards where 
some of the red-coats of Kempt's and Pack's 
infantry showed themselves in the van of the 



408 AT WATERLOO 

pursuers. But at the same instant some horse- 
men of a Prussian hussar regiment dashed at 
them at a gallop. The sight of the horsemen 
was too much for their shattered nerves. They 
turned their backs and ran off panic-stricken. 
Ney's last rallied band broke and fled, with cries 
of " Sauve qui peut ! " 

Yet not quite all. A small band of the men 
of the 8th kept round their Eagle, and retired in 
order, still holding it up. Chef de Bataillon 
Rulliere, of the 95th, snatched the Eagle of that 
regiment from its bearer, broke the staff, and 
carried off the Eagle concealed under his coat. 

Ney's sixth horse was shot under him as the 
men turned. Again getting to his feet he stag- 
gered on in the midst of the crowd of fugitives 
until he at last found his way into one of the 
rallying squares formed in rear by some of 
the survivors of the Guard. There now, beside 
the Eagle of the 4th Chasseurs of the Guard, 
Ney made his last stand at Waterloo — at bay, 
desperate. He fought in the square, " shoulder 
to shoulder with the rest, shooting and thrusting 
with a musket and bayonet he got hold of," as 
the square slowly made its retreat off the field, 
until in the darkness it broke up, and the men 
dispersed. The devotion of a mounted officer 
who met the marshal on foot, utterly worn out 
and by himself, and gave up his horse to him, 
enabled Ney in the end to reach a place of safety. 

Napoleon was watching the Second Column 



NAPOLEON IS HORROR-STRICKEN 409 

of the Guard at the moment of its disaster. 
How the overwhelming catastrophe burst on his 
gaze, abruptly and all unexpectedly, makes one 
of the most dramatic of historic scenes. At 
that moment Napoleon was about to lead in 
person the reserve of the Guard, three battalions 
which he had retained near him throughout, to 
reinforce the fighting line. 

" While they were being marshalled for the 
attack — one battalion deployed, with a batta- 
lion in close column on either side — he kept his 
glass turned upon the conflict in which he intended 
to bear a part. 

" Suddenly his hand fell. 

" ' Mais ils sont melee ! ' he ejaculated in a 
tone of horror, his voice hollow and quavering. 
He addressed his aide de camp. Count Flahault, 
whowas under no illusion as to what troops were 
meant. The sun had just set. There was no 
radiance to prevent all men seeing what was 
going on out there in the north-west." 

Immediately on that followed the general 
collapse : the almost instantaneous break up of 
the French army all along the line. 

" First the trampled corn in rear was sprinkled, 
then it was covered, with a confused mass of men 
moving south ; behind and among them the 
sabres of Vivian's hussars and Vandeleur*s 
dragoons rose and fell, hacking and hewing on 
every side. 

" ' La Garde recule I ' sounded like a sob in 



410 AT WATERLOO 

the motionless ranks of the Old Guard (the three 
battalions near Napoleon), and sped with as- 
tonishing swiftness to every part of the field. 
' La Garde recule ! ' cried the men of AUix, 
Donzelot, and Marcognet, and began to melt 
away from the vantage ground they had recently 
so nobly won. ' La Garde recule ! ' whispered 
Reille's columns, still unbroken on the left. 
Far on the right, Durutte's battalions, suddenly 
confronted by the heads of Ziethen's columns, 
where they had been told to look for Grouchy's, 
caught up the word. Next, the uneasy murmur, 
' Nous sommes trahis ! ' was heard — for was 
there not treason ? Had not General Bourmont 
and his staff, and other officers, openly gone over 
to the enemy ? ' La Garde recule ! ' Oh 
fatal cry ! soon swelling into one still more 
dreadful — last tocsin of the soldier's agony — 
' Sauve qui peut ! ' Papelotte and La Haye 
were abandoned, and from the east, as already 
from the west, the wreck of the Last Army 
rolled towards the Charleroi road." 

The Eagle that was close beside Napoleon at 
that most awful moment of his life, as he saw 
his Guard break and fall back in confusion, is at 
the Invalides now. It is the Eagle of the 2nd 
Grenadiers of the Guard ; one of the three re- 
serve battalions that were forming up to go 
forward at the moment of the catastrophe. 

Napoleon watched the panic begin to spread 
over the field for a brief moment- Then he 



HI 



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Jacqu* 



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Marcd 
Divis 

il 





ffi3qe..^ ^-^^OOW ^^'^^^ /O^//^ 



WATERLOO 

THE FINAL PHASE 

Sketch Plan to show 
the attack and the defeat of 
the columns of the Guard. 



French 

British and Allies 



Cavalry L^-'^l 
Artillery WWw- 



Scale of 1 Mile 



;4 



^4 



NAPOLEON SHELTERS IN A SQUARE 411 

roused himself to try to meet the impending 
crash. First he formed the Guard battalions 
nearest him into square. Then he sent off his 
last remaining gallopers, in the futile hope that 
it might be possible to rally the men of the nearest 
divisions to him before they had time to scatter. 
But the effort was hopeless : it was beyond 
possibility to stem the raging torrent of frantic 
soldiers, now in full flight on every side, racing 
past in the direction of Jemmapes. The lie that 
he had sent round just before the Guard started 
on its charge, that Grouchy had arrived, recoiled 
on his own head. The panic-stricken soldiers 
would not be stopped. " They had been told 
that Grouchy had arrived. They had found 
instead Ziethen's terrible Prussians. Now they 
would listen to nothing. The fugitives streamed 
past, rushing on and bellowing as they went 
that they had been betrayed and that all was 
lost ! " 

After that Napoleon rode into the nearest 
square, and took shelter in its midst. It was 
that of the Second Battalion of the 2nd Chasseurs 
of the Guard. The square moved off at once 
towards La Belle Alliance, and, turning there 
into the Charleroi road, took its way back to- 
wards Rossomme, half a mile in rear, where the 
two battalions of the 1st and 2nd Grenadiers 
of the Old Guard had remained all day. 

At Rossomme Napoleon passed to the square 
of the First Battalion of the 1st Grenadiers of the 



412 AT WATERLOO 

Old Guard. The two battalions of the Guard 
there had already formed in squares of their 
own accord, with their Eagles held on high in 
their midst. They were joined by the 1st 
Chasseurs of the Guard, coming up from Caillou, 
a short distance in rear. The three squares held 
their ground firmly, beating off the headmost of 
the Prussian attacks. They remained halted 
until, on some of the Prussian artillery nearing 
the place, Napoleon himself gave the order to 
move away in retreat. 

At a slow step, the drums rolling out the 
stately ''Grenadier's March," sullen and defiant, 
the Old Guard, with Napoleon in the midst of 
the square of the 1st Grenadiers, set forth on 
their last journey. Their Eagle was still borne 
on high in their midst — close beside Napoleon. 
It is the Eagle that is now treasured in Paris by 
the descendants of General Petit, the commander 
of the Grenadiers at Waterloo — the Eagle of the 
Adieu of Fontainebleau ; the same Eagle that 
led the Guard at Austerlitz and Jena, at Eylau 
and Friedland, at Wagram, and throughout all 
the horrors of the retreat from Moscow. It 
escorted Napoleon off the field after Waterloo. 

The Grenadiers of the Guard escorted Napo- 
leon for four miles from the battlefield, beating 
back repeated efforts that were made by Prus- 
sian cavalry to break up their ranks. To 
maintain their formation to the last was their 
only hope of safety ; and terrible were the 



THE OLD GUARD MARCH AWAY 413 

measures they took to safeguard themselves 
and keep their ranks intact. Friend or foe who 
attempted to get in among them was mercilessly 
shot down. " Nous tirons," describes General 
Petit, " sur tout ce qui presentaient, amis et 
ennemis, de peur de laisser entrer les uns 
avec les autres." They took their way along 
the Charleroi road ; the 2nd Grenadiers marching 
on the chaussee itself, the 1st Grenadiers to the 
left of the road. With marvellous calmness and 
cool courage did the veterans proceed on their 
way. '' Every few minutes they stopped to 
rectify the alignment of the faces of the square, 
and to keep off pursuit by means of rapid and 
well-sustained musketry." 

Erckmann-Chatrian's soldier of the 25th, who 
was amongst the fugitives streaming across 
country on either side of the high-road, tells 
how he heard from afar the stately drum-beat 
of their march. " In the distance La GrenadUre 
sounded like an alarm-bell in the midst of a 
conflagration. Yet, indeed, this was much more 
terrible — it was the last drum-beat of France ! 
This rolling of the drums of the Old Guard 
sounding forth in the midst of disaster had in it 
something infinitely pathetic as well as terrible." 

And of the scene with Napoleon in the square 
of the Grenadiers as it tramped its way along, 
we have this from Thiers : " With sombre but 
calm countenance, he rode in the centre of the 
square, his far-seeing glance as it were probing 



414 AT WATERLOO 

futurity and realising that more than a battle 
had been lost that day. He only interrupted 
his gloomy meditations to inquire now and again 
for his lieutenants, some of whom were among 
the wounded near him. The soldiers all round 
seemed stupefied by the disaster. The men 
moved stolidly on, almost without a word to one 
another. Napoleon alone seemed to be able to 
speak ; occasionally addressing a few words to 
the Major-General (Soult), or to his brother 
Jerome, who rode beside him. Now and again, 
when harassed by the Prussian squadrons, the 
square would halt, and the side that was attacked 
fired on the assailants, after which the sad and 
silent march was resumed." 

Throughout the march, keeping their position 
at a little distance from the squares of the Grena- 
diers, rode the Horse-Grenadiers and the Mounted 
Chasseurs of the Guard. One of the finest dis- 
plays of soldierly endurance ever made, perhaps, 
was that given by the Horse- Grenadiers of the 
Guard as the magnificent regiment left the field, 
" moving at a walk, in close columns and in 
perfect order ; as if disdaining to allow itself 
to be contaminated by the confusion that pre- 
vailed around it." So describes a British officer 
who saw them ride away. They beat off all at- 
tacks and kept steadily and compactly together. 
" They literally walked from the field in the most 
orderly manner, moving majestically along, with 
their Eagle in their midst, as though merely 



A FAMOUS EAGLE NOW IN FRANCE 415 

marching to take up their ground for a field- 
day." This, further, is what a British officer of 
Light Dragoons, who came up with them in the 
pursuit, says of their heroic demeanour : " Seeing 
the men of our brigade approach, they halted, 
formed line, and fired a volley — a rare thing for 
dragoons — and waited a few minutes, as much 
as to say, ' We are ready to receive your charge 
if you are so disposed ' ; then finding we did not 
advance, they again continued their slow retreat." 

The Eagle of the Horse-Grenadiers has dis- 
appeared since Waterloo : that of the Mounted 
Chasseurs of the Guard is in existence, in France, 
in the custody of a member of the Bonaparte 
family. It was preserved by General Lefebvre- 
Desnouettes, Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment, 
who commanded the Chasseurs at Waterloo. 
Carried in safety to France, the Eagle was then 
taken to America, when the General, on whose 
head a price had been placed, escaped across the 
Atlantic in the autumn of 1815. He presented 
it later to Joseph Bonaparte, in the possession 
of whose representatives the Eagle is now. It 
still bears attached to the staff the green silk 
guidon-shaped flag, inscribed " Chasseurs de la 
Garde," and embroidered with gold and silver 
laurel-leaves, which it bore at Waterloo. 

Napoleon quitted the square of Grenadiers 

about two miles from Jemmapes. By that time 

the Prussians had ceased their attacks on the 

Guard for easier prey elsewhere. He rode on 

28 



416 AT WATERLOO 

at a little distance ahead ; the battalions of the 
Guard at the same time re-forming into columns 
of march. They kept with the Emperor until 
the neighbourhood of Jemmapes was reached. 
There Napoleon and Soult and the others quitted 
the road, betaking themselves across the fields 
to make their way as best they could to Charleroi, 
whence Napoleon was able to continue his flight 
in a post-chaise. 

Yet another of the Waterloo Eagles of the 
Guard with a story to be told of it was that of 
the 2nd Chasseurs — one of the Eagles that have 
now disappeared. How the Eagle was saved 
from capture, and finally brought through to 
safety, recalls a remarkable and dramatic 
incident of the battle. 

The 2nd Chasseurs was one of the twelve 
battalions of the Young Guard detached by 
Napoleon late in the afternoon to assist General 
Lobau and the Sixth Army Corps to keep off 
the Prussian flank attack. Between them they 
saved the army from an even worse catas- 
trophe than that which actually befell Napoleon 
at Waterloo — from having to surrender. For 
nearly an hour after the rout had become general, 
the Sixth Corps, and the battalions of the Young 
Guard assisting it, by their heroic resistance, 
prevented the Prussians from breaking in on the 
only line of retreat open to the defeated army, 
and enabled Napoleon to get clear away. 

" Lobau," to quote the words of a modern 



TO SAVE THE REST OF THE ARMY 417 

military writer, " recognised to the full that he 
alone interposed between the Prussians and the 
French line of retreat. If he failed, retreat would 
be cut off, and the army taken in rear as well as 
in front and flank ; not a man would get away. 
The fate of the Army, the Emperor, of France, 
rested on Lobau at the supreme moment, and 
splendidly he did his duty. Dusk had given way 
to dark, only illuminated by the blazing ruins of 
Planchenoit, before Lobau retired, but by that 
time the rear of the flying army had cleared the 
point of peril, and comparative safety was assured. 
Still steady, and in good order, he took post on 
the high-road to close the line of flight and block 
pursuit, and the gallant remnant of the Sixth 
Corps and the Young Guard had to bear the full 
fury of the combined advance of the enemy. 
Nothing at Waterloo can surpass for coolness, 
courage, and determination the heroic resistance 
of Lobau." 

It was in the village of Planchenoit that the 
2nd Chasseurs fought side by side with the other 
battalions of the Guard in that quarter under 
the leadership of General Pelet, to whom Napoleon 
had specially entrusted the defence of the post. 
Planchenoit was defended foot by foot at the 
point of the bayonet against ever-increasing 
numbers of the Prussians. The 2nd Chasseurs 
were the last troops of all to quit, after con- 
testing the village house by house, cottage by 
cottage, figliting the Prussians man to man 



418 AT WATERLOO 

among the bushes and walls of the gardens, 
and finally in the churchyard, where they made 
their last stand at bay, desperately combating 
among the tombstones. Fresh Prussians kept 
coming up to join in the attack, but the 2nd 
Chasseurs, their Eagle defiantly displayed in the 
midst of the battling throng, resisted stubbornly. 
When at the last they drew off, the whole of 
Planchenoit was a mass of flames, blazing from 
end to end. 

There remained a rough half-mile of open 
ground before they could get to the Charleroi 
road — the line of retreat along which, by that 
time, a large proportion of the fugitives from the 
main army had got away. The 2nd Chasseurs, 
in rear of all, as they left their last shelter in 
Planchenoit and were beyond the churchyard 
walls, were swept down on by a furious rush of 
Prussian cavalry, and half the regiment was 
cut to pieces. The moon was rising by that 
time, and the Prussians had sufficient light for 
their deadly work. 

The survivors, broken up, and thrown in 
irremediable disorder, could after that only run 
for their lives. But they still bore their Eagle 
among them. It was draped under a black cloth. 
Somebody, in some house in the village, as they 
were falling back to the churchyard, had, it 
would appear, caught up a strip of crape or black 
cloth, and hastily wrapped it round the 
Eagle to conceal it in that way from hostile 



" SAVE YOUR EAGLE OR DIE ROUND IT ! " 419 

eyes. The Eagle-bearer refused to break the 
Eagle from the staff, and hide it under his 
coat, as others had done elsewhere with other 
Eagles. 

With the Eagle so covered, a small party of 
devoted soldiers were accompanying their 
standard as the survivors of the Prussian 
charge hastened towards the Charleroi road, 
when there came yet another attack from the 
Prussian horse, who charged among them and 
trampled them down as the troopers slashed 
mercilessly at the fugitives. At that moment 
the Eagle and its guardians found themselves 
near the General. They were isolated and cut 
off in the midst of the wild melee. Pelet caught 
sight of them, desperately striving to protect 
the Eagle-bearer, who was frantically clutching 
at the Eagle-staff as he held on to it and tried 
to get through. 

Pelet made for the group, shouting at the top 
of his voice : " Rally, Chasseurs ! Rally on me ! 
Save your Eagle or die round it ! " ('* A moi, 
Chasseurs ! A moi ! Sauvons I'Aigle ou mourons 
autour d'elle ! ") 

In the midst of the frenzied tumult his cry for 
help was somehow heard by the men ahead. 
They turned back in their flight and fought their 
way to the threatened Eagle. Others pressed 
round to join them, until by degrees was formed 
a compact body between two and three hundred 
in number, who with their bayonets kept the 



420 AT WATERLOO 

cavalry back as they fought their way towards 
the high-road step by step. 

More than once they had to halt and face 
about, as the Prussian horsemen in their re- 
peated attempts to capture the Eagle circled 
round them, and dashed in at them again and 
again, but, " forming what is usually termed a 
rallying square, and lowering their bayonets, 
they succeeded in repulsing the charges of the 
cavalry." At one point in the retreat " some 
guns were brought to bear upon them, and 
subsequently a brisk fire of musketry ; but 
notwithstanding the awful sacrifice which was 
thus offered up in defence of their precious 
charge, they succeeded in reaching the main 
line of retreat, and saved alike the Eagle and 
the Honour of the Regiment." 

The Eagles of the Guard all came safely 
through the turmoil and horrors of the night of 
the rout after Waterloo. And — it seems in- 
credible, but the fact is vouched for by several 
officers — so did the other Eagles of the army. 
All at Waterloo, it is declared, were brought 
back to France, except the two taken from the 
ill-fated 45th and the 105th of the Line by the 
Scots Greys and the Royals. Those two only 
remained as trophies in the hands of the victors. 
General Charras, whose good faith we have no 
right to impugn, declares the fact in explicit 
language, and another officer relates how, on the 



"MAKE WAY FOR THE EAGLE!" 421 

day after the battle, when the rallied remains 
of the army assembled at Phillippeville and 
Maubeuge, " the soldiers wept tears of joy at 
learning how many of their Eagles had been 
saved." 

Says General Charras, describing how the 
Eagles were saved that night : " Two standards 
had been lost on the battlefield. There was 
none other lost. In the crowd of disbanded 
horsemen and foot-soldiers, marching and run- 
ning pell-mell, some still armed, others having 
thrown away or broken their sabres and guns 
under the impulse of rage, of despair, of terror, 
there were to be seen, by the pale light of the 
moon, little groups of officers of every grade, 
and of soldiers, spontaneously collected round the 
standard of each regiment, and advancing sabre 
in hand, bayonet on the gun, resolute and im- 
perturbable in the midst of the general disorder. 
' Place au drapeau ! ' cried they when the rout 
arrested their march, and this cry always sufficed 
to cause the very men who had become deaf to 
every word of command and to all discipline 
to stand aside before them and open a passage. 
They had often to endure peril, they had often 
to repulse the enemy's attacks, but they saved 
their conquered flags from the attempts and 
hands of the conqueror." 

Grouchy also saved all his Eagles — although 
one had its adventures in the attack on Wavre,and 
was nearly lost to the Prussians. The story 



422 AT WATERLOO 

this time is not exactly creditable to some of 
those concerned ; but the regiment in question, 
it must be said, had but few old soldiers in its 
ranks, having been made up almost entirely of 
recently levied and half- trained conscripts. Also, 
it had just previously been very roughly handled 
by the Prussians on the battlefield of Ligny. 
There, indeed, it had been charged by cavalry, 
and had suffered severely. The unfortunate 
regiment was the 70th of the Line. 

In Grouchy's fighting at Wavre they were in 
Vandamme's Division, which had orders to carry 
the bridge over the Dyle and storm the town, 
held by the Prussians in considerable force. To 
give the 70th a chance of getting their revenge 
for Ligny, and winning back the old good name 
of the regiment, Vandamme specially chose them 
for the post of honour in the attack ; appointing 
the 70th to lead the van in the preliminary 
storming of the bridge. They led the attack, 
dashing forward bravely enough at the outset, 
and got halfway across. Then they stopped 
short, their ranks decimated by the furious 
fire with which the Prussians received them from 
the houses on the opposite bank, hesitated, 
went on a few paces, stopped again, and finally 
ran back in panic. 

The sight of the sudden rout maddened their 
leader. Colonel Maury. Stooping from his charger, 
he snatched hold of the Eagle from its bearer, 
and held it up before the men. " What ! you 



SAVED BY ANOTHER REGIMENT 423 

scoundrels ! You dishonoured me two days 
ago ; you are again disgracing me to-day ! 
Forward! Follow me!" ("Comment, canaille! 
Vous m'avez deshonore avant-hier, et vous 
recidiviez aujourdhui ! En avant ! Suivez 
moi ! ") Brandishing the Eagle the colonel 
turned his horse to ride back across the bridge. 
The drums beat the charge : the regiment fol- 
lowed. But all was to no purpose. As fate 
willed it, the gallant colonel fell, shot dead before 
he could get across, and at the sight of his fall 
panic again seized the regiment. They ran 
wildly back again, leaving the dead colonel's 
body and the Eagle lying halfway across the 
bridge. The Eagle was rescued and brought 
back by the men of another regiment. Had it 
not been for the sudden rush forward of the 
leading company of the 22nd of the Line, the 
regiment supporting the 70th in the attack, the 
Eagle would have been taken. Several Prussian 
soldiers had indeed already run forward to pick 
it up, and their leader was in the act of doing so 
when the foremost of the rescuers arrived, beat 
back the Prussians, and recovered the fallen 
Eagle. 

The failure of this one regiment at Wavre is 
the only recorded instance of bad behaviour 
before the enemy in the Waterloo campaign. 
And for it too, in view of the composition of the 
regiment in question, some allowance may surely 
be made. 



424 AT WATERLOO 

The Eagles announce Victory to London 

The last of the four episodes is supplemental : 
the story of how Wellington's Eagle- trophies 
themselves first announced Waterloo to London. 

The two Eagles were sent to England immedi- 
ately after the battle, together with Wellington's 
Waterloo despatch, by Major the Hon. Henry 
Percy, of the 11th Light Dragoons, who was 
almost the only member of Wellington's staff 
who went through the battle unwounded. He 
arrived in London, displaying the Eagles from 
his post-chaise as he travelled through the streets, 
on the stroke of eleven o'clock on the night of 
Wednesday, June 21. 

Up to then not a word had come from Wel- 
lington : not a word of reliable news as to what 
had happened had reached England. Rumours 
of an early check to the French had arrived, 
from unofficial sources, during the previous day, 
but nothing more had been heard, and all London 
was on tenterhooks of suspense. 

The battle was fought on Sunday the 18th. 
But no news of it, or in regard to it, of any 
kind reached England during either Monday or 
Tuesday. There was no intelligence from the seat 
of war at all. On the Wednesday morning the 
Times announced vaguely that Napoleon had 
struck the first blow unsuccessfully. A Mr. Sutton, 
of Colchester, it said, the owner of packet-boats 
running between Harwich and Ostend, had 



THE FIRST RUMOURS IN LONDON 425 

forwarded a message to the effect that there 
had been fighting on the 15th and 16th and 
skirmishing on the 17th, and that a fresh battle 
was beginning on the morning of the 18th. His 
informant at Brussels had sent that news. There 
was no more news until Wednesday afternoon, 
when the Sun came out with a special edition 
stating that the Government had received no de- 
spatches, but that "a gentleman who left Ghent 
on Monday, and two others from Brussels, brought 
word that Sunday's battle had been successful." 
All London was in the streets until between ten 
and eleven that night, in a state of eager ex- 
pectation ; but repeated inquiries at the Horse 
Guards, at the War Office, and at the Mansion 
House only met with the answer — " No news 
yet." 

It was just as the crowds were dispersing, 
tired of waiting, and taking it as certain that 
nothing could be known until the morning, as 
the clocks were on the stroke of eleven, that 
Major Percy arrived in London. 

" He left the Duchess of Richmond's ball," 
says his niece. Lady Bagot, in whose words the 
story may best be told, " on the night before the 
battle, and had no time to change his dress, 
or even his shoes, before going into action. 
When he received orders to go to England with 
the despatches, he posted to Antwerp, and there 
took the first sailing boat he could find to convey 
him to Dover, where he landed in the afternoon. 



426 AT WATERLOO 

He found that a report of the victory had pre- 
ceded him there. The Rothschilds had char- 
tered a fast sloop to lie off Antwerp, and bring 
the first news of the battle to the English shore 
— news which was to be used for Stock Exchange 
purposes. 

" My uncle's confirmation of the rumour of a 
great victory was received with the greatest 
relief and enthusiasm. At that time the hotel- 
keeper at Dover, a certain Mr. Wright, had the 
monopoly of the posting arrangements between 
that port and London. He immediately placed 
his best horses at my uncle's disposal, and de- 
spatched an express to order fresh relays all along 
the road. Besides the despatches my uncle 
took the two captured Eagles of the Imperial 
Guard with him. These, being too large to go 
into the carriage, were placed so as to stick out 
of the windows, one on each side. In this man- 
ner he drove straight to the Horse Guards, 
where he learnt that the Commander-in-Chief, 
at that time the Duke of York, was dining out. 
He next proceeded to Lord Castlereagh's, and 
was told that he and the Duke of York were 
both dining with a lady in St. James's Square. 
To this house he drove, and there learnt that the 
Prince Regent was also of the dinner-party. 

*' Requesting to be shown immediately into 
the dining-room, he entered that apartment 
bearing the despatches and the Eagles with him. 
He was covered with dust and mud, and, though 



PRESENTED TO THE PRINCE REGENT 427 

unwoimded himself, bore the marks of battle 
upon his coat. The dessert was being placed 
upon the table when he entered, and as soon as 
the Prince Regent saw him he commanded the 
ladies to leave the room. The Prince Regent 
then held out his hand, saying, ' Welcome, 
Colonel Percy ! ' 'Go down on one knee,' said 
the Duke of York to my uncle, ' and kiss hands 
for the step you have obtained.' Before the 
despatch could be read, my uncle was besieged 
with inquiries of various prominent officers 
engaged, and had to answer ' Dead ' or ' Severely 
wounded ' so often that the Prince Regent burst 
into tears. The Duke of York, though greatly 
moved, was more composed. 

" By this time my uncle was exhausted from 
fatigue, and begged the Prince's permission to 
go to his father's house in Portman Square. 
The crowd was so great in St. James's Square, 
that he had the greatest difficulty in getting 
through it and reaching my grandfather's house, 
which was soon surrounded by anxious multi- 
tudes begging for news of relations and friends. 
My uncle told them that the victory was com- 
plete, but that the number killed and wounded 
was very large. He told them that he would 
answer more questions next morning." 

The Eagles themselves in fact announced the 
victory in London. People in the streets saw 
the chaise as it passed on its way with its horses 
at a gallop, racing at full speed along the Old 



428 AT WATERLOO 

Kent Road, across Westminster Bridge, and 
through Parliament Street to Whitehall, " the 
gleaming lamps showing a French Eagle and 
the French flags projecting from each window." 

The news spread like wild-fire, and before 
Colonel Percy could reach the house where the 
Prince Regent was dining — Mrs. Boehm's, in 
St. James's Square — South London was 
flocking over Westminster Bridge to Whitehall. 
The West End heard the news immediately 
afterwards, and everybody hurried out again 
into the streets. 

It became quickly known where the chaise 
had gone after leaving the Horse Guards, and 
promptly an ever-increasing crowd hurried off 
there. Before the despatch had been read an 
enormous mass of people had assembled in St. 
James's Square, outside the house. They were 
in time to hear the cheering by the company in- 
side the house that greeted the reading of the 
despatch; the cheers were instantly echoed back, 
accompanied by an outburst of vociferous shout- 
ing followed by a tremendous chorus of " God 
save the King ! " The windows of the dining- 
room were open, and a moment later the two 
Eagles with their tricolor flags were thrust 
through. They were held up, with candles at 
either side, to show them plainly, so that all 
might know that the victory had been decisive. 

" For a few minutes dustmen's bells and 
watchmen's rattles were sprung all over London. 



HOW PARIS HEARD THE NEWS 429 

Liquor was produced at many a street-corner, 
and toasts were drunk to Wellington and con- 
fusion to Bonaparte." ^ 

The closing scene took place on Thursday, 
January 18, 1816 — on the " General Thanks- 

^ The news of Waterloo reached Paris just twenty-four hours 
earlier than it reached London — during the night of Tuesday, 
June 20. How it was broken to the French capital forms a 
story little less dramatic than the other story of how the news 
of Waterloo arrived in London. In Paris they had had news 
of the successful opening of the campaign. On the 18th, just 
as Napoleon was holding his last review, before Waterloo opened, 
the " trivunphal battery " of the Invalides was firing a feu de joie 
in honoiir of victory over Bliicher at Ligny. On Monday and 
Tuesday, the 19th and 20th, Napoleon's Ligny Bulletin, with 
details, was published in the Moniteur. When the caf^s closed 
that evening, there was as yet no word of Waterloo. But at that 
same moment the news was arriving — in a private message to 
Carnot, the Minister of the Interior. What had happened 
leaked out first at his house. 

" On that evening," describes M. Edgar Quinet, " several 
percons were assembled at the house of M. Carnot, and they 
vainly asked him for news. To evade these importunate ques- 
tions, Carnot went to a card-table and sat down with three of 
his friends. He from whom I have this story sat opposite the 
Minister. By chance he raised his eyes and looked at Carnot ; 
he saw his countenance, serious, furrowed, with tears pouring 
down it. The cards were thrown up ; the players rose. ' The 
battle is lost ! ' exclaimed Carnot, who could contain himself 
no longer." The news spread through Paris like wild-fire. It 
was not believed at first ; the catastrophe was too stiinning, too 
terrible. To that succeeded a gloomy stupor ( une morne stu- 
peur). 

" They had not long to wait. All was known next morning. 
The astounding news of the rout of the army in Belgivma, and 
the still more astounding news of the arrival of Napoleon in 
Paris, were spread through the great city almost simultaneously, 
and stirred to the depths its restless and volatile population. 
Twice before had Napoleon suddenly returned to Paris — from 
Moscow, from Leipsic — and each time alone, without an army. 
Thxis had he again presented himself." 



4ao AT WATERLOO 

giving Day for the Restoration of Peace." The 
two Eagles were on that day publicly paraded 
at the Horse Guards and laid up in the Chapel 
Royal, Whitehall, with ceremonies similar to 
those that attended the reception of the Barrosa 
and Salamanca trophies. Again the battalions 
of the Brigade of Guards in England, with their 
bands " in State clothing," turned out to take 
part in the display, the Eagles, as before, being 
made to march round the square and do formal 
obeisance to the British flag by being prostrated 
in the dust before the Colour of the King's 
Guard of the day, at which sight, as on the 
former occasions, both the troops and the crowd 
of spectators " instantaneously gave three loud 
huzzas with the most enthusiastic feeling." 
The Duke of York, as Commander-in-Chief, pre- 
sided this time at the parade. Two sergeants 
of the Grenadier and Third Guards who had been 
wounded at Waterloo were selected to carry the 
Eagles ; escorted by a picked company of eighty- 
four officers and men " drawn from among the 
heroic defenders of Hougoumont on the field of 
battle." Lifeguardsmen and Blues just arrived 
from the Army of Occupation, in France, assisted 
the Foot Guards on parade. 

The escort entered the Chapel Royal by 
the two doors in equal divisions, the band play- 
ing and marching up to the steps of the Com- 
munion Table, where they filed off to right and 
left. As soon as the band had ceased, the two 



IN THE CHAPEL ROYAL, WHITEHALL 431 

sergeants bearing the Eagles approached the 
Altar and fixed upon it their consecrated banners. 
Both the Chaplain-General to the Forces (Arch- 
deacon Owen) and the Bishop of London, with 
two Royal Chaplains (" the Rev. Mr. Jones and 
the Rev. Mr. Howlett "), officiated in the service ; 
the Bishop preaching a special sermon, with for 
his text Psalm xx. verses 7 and 8 : 

" Some trust in chariots and some in horses : 
but we will remember the name of the Lord 
our God. 

" They are brought down and fallen : but 
we are risen and stand upright.^ ^ 

" After the customary blessing, the band 
played ' God save the King ! ' the whole congrega- 
tion standing. Among those who attended were 
a considerable number of persons of fashion and 
distinction in public life, the Dukes of Gloucester 
and York, and the Earl of Liverpool, and several 
officers of the Army and Navy, with many 
elegant and distinguished females." 



29 



CHAPTER XIV 

AFTER THE DOWNFALL 

The remnant of the Waterloo army, as mustered 
and officially reported to Paris on July 1, 
1815, after it had been withdrawn by convention 
with the Allies beyond the Loire, numbered some 
23,000 of all arms.^ The soldiers had their 
Eagles with them. The Eagles were still the 
standards of the army, although all was over with 
Napoleon, and he had set out on his flight from 
Malmaison to the coast near Rochfort — to find 
the Bellerophon awaiting him there. 

The last occasion on which an Eagle of Napo- 
leon's Army had its part on parade was one day, 

^ The Campaign of the Hundred. Days, it has been estimated, 
from first to last cost Napoleon in round numbers, in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners taken in the field : 

Ligny (Klilled and wounded) . . . 10,000 



Quatre-Bras (Killed and wounded) 
Waterloo (Killed and wounded) . 
„ (Prisoners unwoiinded) . 

Wavre (Killed and wounded) 
Lesser actions (Killed and wounded) 

Total 



4,300 
29,500 
7,500 
1,800 
2,100 

55,200 



Out of the 126,000 men with whom Napoleon took the field, 
he lost some 43 per cent, of his army in the week between June 
15 and 22. 

432 



PRESENTED AFTER WATERLOO 433 

near the Loire, with a regiment not at Waterloo. 
It was when the news of Napoleon's abdication 
reached its colonel. He was Colonel Bugeaud 
of the 14th of the Line, in after years the famous 
Marshal who gained Algeria for France. As it 
happened, the 14th had not long received their 
Eagle from the " Champ de Mai.'' It had been 
brought by the deputation of the regiment sent 
to Paris to receive it at the hands of the Emperor, 
but had not yet been formally presented on 
parade, owing to the regiment being on the 
march from the south-eastern frontier of France. 
The 14th joined the rallied remnants of the 
Waterloo army to the south of the Loire, and 
there Colonel Bugeaud made the presentation 
of the Eagle. For the occasion he made use of 
the Napoleonic formula of address at such 
ceremonies, but with a variation to suit the 
altered situation. He took the opportunity to 
remind the regiment that, if the Chief had fallen, 
they yet owed allegiance to their country. 
" Soldiers of the 14th," began the colonel, " here 
is your Eagle. It is in the name of the nation 
that I present it to you. If the Emperor, as it is 
stated, is no longer our Sovereign, France re- 
mains. It is France who confides this Eagle to 
you as your standard ; it is ever to be your 
talisman of victory. Swear that as long as a 
soldier of the 14th exists no enemy's hand shall 
touch it ! " " We swear it ! " responded the 
soldiers all together, and then the officers stepped 



434 AFTER THE DOWNFALL 

forward in front of the ranks, waving their 
swords and again shouting, " We swear it ! " 

The end for the Eagles of Napoleon came on 
August 3, 1815. On that day the Ministerial 
decree was promulgated, abolishing them and 
the tricolor flag, and disbanding the entire 
Army. The white Bourbon flag was restored 
once more, with a new form of Army organisa- 
tion, which substituted " Departmental Legions " 
in the place of regiments. As in the year before, 
it was notified that all Eagles were to be sent to 
the Artillery depot at Vincennes for destruction 
there, according to law — the metal of the Eagles 
to be melted down, their silken tricolor flags 
to be burned. 

The date of the final disbandment was fixed 
for September 30, and in almost every case 
there was a pathetic scene when the hour came 
for the soldiers to take their last farewell of 
their Eagles. " On the day of the disbandment," 
describes one officer, speaking of his own regi- 
ment, " we all paraded, and the roll was called 
for the last time. Then the Eagle was passed 
solemnly down along the line, the band playing 
a funeral march. The officers and soldiers, all 
in tears, after saluting it, embraced and kissed 
the Eagle. It was then escorted back to the 
colonel's quarters to be packed up in a box and 
forwarded, according to the official instructions, 
by carrier to the Ministry of War, thence to go 
to Vincennes." 



ON THE DAY OF THE LAST PARADE 435 

In a few cases, where the senior officers knew 
that they had nothing to hope for in the way of 
consideration from the new regime, the Eagles 
were publicly broken up at the last parade by 
the colonels themselves, with a blacksmith's 
hammer or pioneer's hatchet, and the silken 
tricolor flags cut to pieces, after which the metal 
fragments, together with the shreds of the flags, 
were distributed as keepsakes among officers 
and men. That being done, all silently dispersed, 
never to reassemble. In some other cases, as 
had happened a twelvemonth previously, the 
Eagles disappeared before the last parade — 
the officers in the various regiments having 
arranged for one of themselves to retain the 
Eagle of the corps privately, either by agreement 
or after drawing lots. 

It was in this way that what Napoleonic 
Eagles and flags are now at the Invalides came 
to be there. They were kept hidden by their 
possessors until after the Revolution of July, 
1830, and then, on the formation of the present 
collection of standards and trophies being offici- 
ally sanctioned, most of those at present ex- 
hibited were brought to light and presented, 
either by those who had been treasuring them 
in secret, or by their heirs and families. 

Three Waterloo Eagles are at the Invalides : 
those of the 2nd Grenadiers of the Guard, and 
of the 25th and 26th of the Line ; these last two 
of the regiments in the columns charged by the 



436 AFTER THE DOWNFALL 

Scots Greys and the Royals. In addition to the 
Eagles, there are at the Invalides several standards 
that saw service on the battlefield under Napo- 
leon and survived the vicissitudes of war : seven 
flags of infantry, and as many of artillery, one 
cuirassier standard, and five other cavalry stan- 
dards. Most of these originally bore Eagles on 
their staves, but those Eagles are now wanting.'^ 

1 Five Eagles were on show in London in the autumn of 
1815, in the so-called " Waterloo Museum," having been acquired 
somehow on the occupation of Paris. Two were described as 
the Eagles of the 5th of the Line and of the Seamen of the 
Guard, and two as National Guard Eagles — all four having 
been presented at the Champ de Mai. The fifth purported to 
be the Eagle of the " Elba Guard." None of the five had ever 
been in action. 



INDEX 



Alexander, Czar of Russia, 96, 
104, 109, 111, 275, 292, 318, 
24, 26 

Aspem, Battle of, 204-10 ; Eagle 
buried on the battlefield, 204 ; 
two Eagles lost at, 205 ; at 
bay in the burning village, 207 ; 
K'apoleon demands to see both 
Eagle and colonel, 208 

Auerstadt, Battle of, 127, 133-6; 
Davout under fire at, 134-5 ; 
Eagles under fire at, 135 ; 
Napoleon and the Third Corps, 
136 

Augereau, Marshal, 37, 145, 155, 
156, 157, 158, 164, 169 ; wound- 
ed at Eylau, 158 ; sends Mar- 
bot to save a regiment, 179; 
in disgrace, 364 

Avisterlitz, Eagles in the battle : 
Eagle of the 15th Light In- 
fantry rescued by the Com- 
mandant, 101 ; Eagle of the 
111th raUies the regiment, 102 ; 
Eagle of the 108th in peril, 
103 ; Eagle of the 10th Light 
Infantry rescued, 106 ; Eagle 
of the 24th Light Infantry lost, 
108; fate of Eagle of 4th, 108- 
10 ; Eagle of the Chasseurs of 
the Guard saved by a dog, 112, 
113; trophies sent to Notre 
Dame, 120-121 ; trophies dis- 
appear in 1814, 342 

Barrosa, Battle of, trophy stolen 
from Chelsea Hospital, 227-8 ; 



Colonel Vigo-Roussillon's narra- 
tive, 229-31 ; how the 87th 
advanced, 229 ; fighting with 
their fists, 231 ; French colonel 
and General Graham, 230 ; 
French account of taking of 
"Eagle with Golden Wreath," 
232-3 ; as reported in the 
Moniteur, 233 ; Napoleon refuses 
to replace lost Eagle, 234 ; the 
" Algiers," 235 

Battalion Eagles, abolished, 183, 
187-8 ; Napoleon's anger at 
the Amsterdam review, 188 ; 
some supplied surreptitiously, 
188 ; fimal orders issued, 189 

" Battle-honours," as first au- 
thorised by Napoleon, 14, 15 ; 
adopted in other armies, 14 ; 
only selected names allowed, 191; 
on the flag of the Old Guard, 
315 ; aboUshed at the Restora- 
tion, 350 

Beauhamais, Eugene, Viceroy of 
Italy, 29, 204, 275, 88 

Berlin, insolence of Prussian 
officers, 124 ; their fate, 146 ; 
Napoleon's triiimphant entry, 
144-6 ; in the uniform of a 
French general, 145 ; demean- 
our of the citizens, 145 ; 
French soldiers in the streets, 

143 ; march through, of 
Davout's corps, 143-4 ; parade 
of captured Prussian flags in, 

144 ; deputation of Senate 
CEirries trophies to Paris, 147 



437 



438 



INDEX 



Bernadotte, Marshal, 38, 98, 112, 
139, 144, 51, 52, 295, 364; sur- 
prised at Mohringen, 150 

Berthier, Marshal, chief of the 
general stafi of Grand Army, 
10, 11, 39, 40, 41, 125, 45, 188, 
194, 5, 288, 96, 322, 23, 364; 
on campaign with Napoleon, 
39-41 ; at an Eagle presenta- 
tion, 194 

Bessieres, Marshal, 29, 38, 110, 11, 
177, 364 

Borodino, in the battle, 269-72 ; 
Eagles have several narrow 
escapes, 270-2 ; soldier's per- 
sonal narrative, 270 

Boulogne Camp, 10, 15, 19, 58, 
61 

British trophies, destroyed at the 
Invalides, 333-5 ; naval flags 
among them, 335 ; the trophies 
now there, 344 

Brune, Marshal, 34, 39, 363 

Caesar, Eagle of, adopted by 
Napoleon, 9, 10 

Cambronne, General, 355, 60 

Campaign of 1813, fate of Eagles 
in : at the battles of the Katz- 
bach, Dennewitz, Kulm, Gross- 
beeren, 298 ; Irish Legion 
saves its Eagles 294-5 ; heroic 
feat of a soldier, 295-6 ; a short- 
sighted colonel, 297 ; the Eagle 
of the 17th escapes, 297-302; 
one lost in first day's fighting at 
Leipsic, 303 ; Eagles buried 
or flung into the Elster, 304- 
305 ; dashing rescue by young 
officer, 306; Eagles after the 
capitulation of Dresden, 306- 
307 ; Eagle lost in a river in 
Eastern France, 307-8 ; " One 
against eight," 308 

Caulaincourt, 169, 172, 73, 305, 
322, 23, 373, 74 

" Champ de Mai," 1815, 362-72 ; 
distribution of Eagles to the 
Last Army at, 369-72 ; why ao 



called, 362 ; varying opinions 
on effect of, 372 

Champ de Mars, presentation of 
Eagles on, 15, 16, 20-1, 22-3, 
43-59 ; personages who were 
there, 28-9, 31, 32, 35-42 ; 
taking the oath, 46-7 ; the final 
contretemps, 56-7 

Chapel Royal, Whitehall, recep- 
tion of Wellington's trophies 
in, 226, 242, 430-1 

Charlemagne, Eagle and Insignia 
of, 8, 9, 27, 44 

Chasseur Eagles ordered to be 
withdrawn, 182 

Chasseurs, 4th, deputation to 
Napoleon, 31 

Chasseurs of the Guard, 25, 111, 
416-20 

Chelsea Hospital, trophies, 214, 
227, 243, 255; Barrosa trophy 
stolen, 227-8 

Clark-Kennedy, Sir A. K., takes 
an Eagle at Waterloo, personal 
narrative, 399, 401, 402, 403 

Cock proposed as National Em- 
blem, Napoleon objects to it, 
3, 4, 6 

" Cou-cous," barrack-room nick- 
name for the Eagles, 53 ; ad- 
venture of one at Jena, 133 

Ciistrin, surrender of fortress, 126, 
142 

Danube flotilla in Austerlitz 

campaign, 82-3 
Davout, Marshal, 19, 29, 42, 98, 

100, 101, 103, 4, 14, 34, 35, 36, 

143, 45, 66, 67, 267, 68, 69, 

275, 363, 369 
Decoration of " Trois Toisons 

d'Or" proposed for Eagles, 

186 
De Coster, Napoleon's Waterloo 

guide, 377, 386, 397 
D'Erlon, General Drouet, at 

Waterloo, 381, 82, 84, 88, 392, 
Disbandment of the Grand Army, 

Eagles at, 434-5 



INDEX 



439 



Doazelot, General, at Waterloo, 
391, 392, 410 

Dragoon Eagles ordered to be 
withdrawn, 182 

Dresden, surrender of, 1813, 
fate of the Eagles at, 307, 348- 
349 

Dupont, General, 64, 65, 66, 82, 83, 
86-91, 93, 94, 106, 135; sur- 
render of Bailen, fate of, 336, 7, 
338 ; Minister of War at the 
Restoration, harsh conduct of, 
349, 350 

Dtirrenstein, combat at : Napo- 
leon's alarm on hearing sudden 
cannonade, 81-2 ; forlorn-hope 
charge of the 100 th and 103rd 
to save the Eagles, 89 ; hero- 
ism of Marshal Mortier at, 90; 
Eagles of the 9th and ?i2nd 
taken and retaken, 91 ', just 
saved at the last, 93 

Durutte, General, at Waterloo, 
391, 410 

Eagle lo?t in Massena's retreat 
found in a river in Spain and 
now at Chelsea, 259-60 ; of 
Chasseurs of the Guard at 
Waterloo, 415; captured at 
Bailen recovered at Cadiz by 
French officer, 337 

" Eagle with the Golden Wreath," 
taking of, at Barrosa, 231-3 ; 
fate of, at Chelsea, 227 ; ori- 
gin of the Wreath, 235, 6 

" Eagle Guard," institution of, 
after Eylau, 183-6 ; why Napo- 
leon created it, 182 ; costume 
designed for Napoleon by 
Baron Lejeune, 185 

Eagles, allowed by Napoleon to 
be kept back on occasions, 260 ; 
ordered to be withdrawn from 
Spain, 261; proscribed at the 
Restoration, 246, 350, 434-6 ; 
those now at InvaUdes, 307-8, 
435 ; two that were taken and 
retaken at Waterloo, 403-4 ; 



how all but two got through in 
the end, 420-1 

"Elba Guard," Eagle of the, 
353-5 

Elchingen^ Nay's heroism at, 
66-8 

Elephant proposed as National 
Emblem, 5 

Ewart, Sergeant Charles, of the 
Scots Greys, takes an Eagle at 
Waterloo, personal account ; 
396, 97, 98 

Eylau Campaign, twelve Eagles 
lost, 166 ; Eagle of the 9th Light 
Infantry lost at Mohringen and 
found in a Russian ammuni- 
tion wagon, 151-3 ; two Eagles 
taken on first afternoon of 
Battle of Eylau, 154 ; the 14th 
and 24th annihilated, and their 
Eagles carried off by Cossacks, 
155-63 ; Marbot's daring ride 
and narrow escape, 158-63; 
10 th Light Infantry and 2Sth 
also annihilated and Eagles 
lost, 164 ; the 25th saves its 
Eagle, but loses all its officers, 
165-7; Eagles of the 18th 
and 51st taken, 166-7 ; nar- 
row escapes of the Eagles of 
the 17th and 30th, 168-9; 
four cuirassier regiments lose 
their Eagles, 169 ; Eagle of the 
Old Guard shot down, 172-3; 
two more Eagles lost at Fried- 
land, 175-6 

" Fanions," institution of, 183, 

1 90 ; ordered for all second and 

third and extra battalions, 183 ; 

regulation colours of, 190 ; 

Napoleon's opinion of their 

value, 190 
" First Grenadier of France," 

Heart of the, narrow escapes in 

battle, 164-5, 382 
Flag on the Eagle, design and 

detaUs of, 10, 12-14, 191-3, 371 
Flags lost under the Republio 



440 



INDEX 



recovered in axsenal at Inns- 
bruck, 79 ; Marshal Ney pre- 
sents on parade, 79 ; Napo- 
leon's special Bulletin, 80 

Fleur-de-lis proposed as National 
Emblem, 4, 7 

Fontainebleau, Eagle of the Old 
Guard at, 312-14 

Frederick the Great, 123, 24, 27, 
134, 37, 44, 48, 49, 239, 292, 3, 
330, 2, 6, 344 ; his sword seized 
by Napoleon at Potsdam, 148, 
borne through the streets of 
Paris, 149 ; fate at the In- 
valides, 330, 332, 336 

Garcia Hernandez, action at, 
French square broken by the 
Hanoverian Dragoons, 255-8, 
400 

Gazan, General, 82, 83, 86, 92, 94, 
95, 232, 33, 262 

Golden Wreaths voted by Paris 
municipahty for Eagles of Jena 
and Friedland, 177, 235-8 ; 
Napoleon orders the Austerlitz 
Eagles to be also decorated, 236 

Gough, Major Hugh, commanding 
8 7th at Barrosa, 222, 235 

Graham, General, at Barrosa, 228, 
229, 233 

Griitz, combat at, special in- 
scription, " One against ten," 
placed on Eagle of the 84th, 
202-4 

Grouchy, General, 363, 385, 389, 
390, 410, 411, 421, 422 

Guillemin, Porte-Aigle, of 8th of 
the Line, kiUed at Barrosa, 232 

Giinsburg, storming of the bridge 
of, in theUlm Campaign, heroism 
of Eagle-bearer of the 59th, 
63-5 

Halle, rearguard, action at, after 

Jena, 125, 136-7 
Haslach, brilUant defence by 

Dupont, 05-6 
Horse Grenadiers after Waterloo, 



British officer's tribute to, 414- 
415 

Horse Guards Parade, display of 
captinred Eagles on, 217-27, 
241-2, 429-31 

Hussar Eagles ordered to be -with- 
drawn, 182 

Ice disaster at Austerlitz, 114—15 
Invahdes, on the day of the 
destruction of the Eagles, 30 ; 
Frederick the Great's sword 
and Jena trophies sent to, 148, 
149; destruction of trophies 
at, in 1814 : no orders till too 
late, 328-9 ; holocaust in the 
Court of Honour, 331-9 ; Rus- 
sian officer sent to demand an 
account, 339-42 ; dome gilded 
by order of Napoleon from 
Moscow, 338 ; attempt at sal- 
vage of trophies, 339 ; Napo- 
leonic trophies now at, 344, 435 
Irish Legion Eagle, presented by 
Napoleon on the Field of Mars, 
51 ; narrow escape of coming 
to Chelsea, 293 ; saved from the 
Prussians in 1813, 294 

Jena Campaign, in the battle, 127- 
133 ; Napoleon and the Eagle 
of the 64th at Jena, 129 ; Eagle 
of the 76th at bay, 131 ; Eagle 
pocketed by a soldier, 132-3 ; 
Eagle of the 111th of the Line 
at Auerstadt, 135 ; Eagle of the 
32nd at Halle, 136-7 ; Eagles 
paraded at the surrender of 
Magdeburg, 140 ; in the trium- 
phal march through Berlin, 
144 ; trophies paraded in Paris, 
147-9 ; half trophies recovered 
in 1814, 343 

Jourdan, Marshal, 39, 363 

Katzbach, incident in battle at 
the, colonel sacrifices his hf e for 
his Eagle by mistake, 296-7 

Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg, 



INDEX 



441 



Napoleonic trophies in, 150, 
263-5, 292 

Kempt, General, at Waterloo, 393, 
407 

Keogh, Ensign Edward, 87th 
Royal Irish Fusiliers, heroic 
attempt to capture Eagle at 
Barrosa, 232 

IvJeist, General, Governor of Mag- 
deburg, surrenders to Ney, 139, 
140-1 ; insulted by his officers, 
143 

Kulm, defeat of Vandamme at, 
1813, Eagle of the 17th saved 
after extraordinary adventures, 
personal narrative, 297-302 

Lannes, Marshal, 37, 38, 82, 98, 
113, 14, 31, 32, 37, 39, 45, 176, 
332, 364 

Last Eagle presented to a regi- 
ment, 433-4 

Lefebvre-Desnouettes, General, 34, 
288, 364 

Legion of Honoxur decoration 
affixed to a regimental standard, 
186-7 

Leipsic, Battle of, fate of the 
Eagles cut off on right bank of 
the Elster, 303-6 

Light Infantry Eagles ordered to 
be withdrawn, 182 

Lion proposed as National Em- 
blem of France, 7, 8 

Lobau, Count, at Waterloo, 383- 
384, 90, 416-17 

Liibeck, Bliicher's siurender at, 
and spoils from, 125, 139 

Macdonald, Marshal, at Wag- 
ram, 210, 11, 83, 93, 4, 318, 
364 

Mack, General, in Uhn Campaign, 
61, 62, 71, 72, 82 

Magdebvirg, surrender of, to Mar- 
shal Ney, 125, 139-143 

Mamelvikes of the Guard, 24-5, 110 

Marbot and the Eagle of 14th at 
Eylau, 16&-63 



Marcognet, General, at Waterloo, 
391, 393, 394, 395, 397, 410 

Marmont, Marshal, 75, 82, 244, 45, 
246, 255, 317, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 
326, 27, 28, 364 

Mass^na, Marshal, 35, 36, 79, 206, 
209, 10, 259, 364, 415 ; heroic 
defence of Aspern, 206-10 

Masterton, Sergeant, 87th Royal 
Irish Fusiliers, captor of Eagle 
at Barrosa, 232-3 

" Mes braves Enfants de Paris," 
Napoleon and 45th of the Line, 
395-6 

Mohringen, surprise of Bemadotte 
at, 150-3 

Moncey, Marshal, 38, 149, 363 

Morlay, Lieutenant, Eagle-bearer 
of the Old Guard at Eylau, 171 

Mortier, Marshal, 29, 38, 81-7, 
90-4, 106, 288, 317-19, 320, 324, 
326, 363 

Moscow Campaign, Russian 
trophies, spoils, and other 
mementoes of the retreat, 263- 
266 ; fate of Eagles at Boro- 
dino, 270-1 ; Cuirassier regi- 
ment loses its Eagle and finds 
it again, 272 ; surprise of 
Murat, at Vinkovo, 275 ; at 
Wiasma, the only survivor of a 
regiment, 276-7 ; after Wiasma, 
midnight ride of two officers, 
282 ; Ney orders the Eagles to 
be destroyed, 284 ; at Krasnoi, 
loss of the Eagle of the 18th, 285 ; 
concentrated near the Imperial 
Guard, 287 ; at the Beresina, 
Eagle broken up and buried, 
289 ; after the Beresina, Eagles 
buried in the snow, 290 

" Moustache," dog of Chasseurs 
of Guard, at Austerlitz, 112-13 

Murat, Prince, King of Naples, 
23, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 57, 61, 66, 
67, 113, 14, 25, 28, 38, 54, 69, 
170, 182, 274, 283, 88, 352, 364 

Napoleon : with Berthier on cam- 



442 



INDEX 



paign, 40-1 ; oration at Eagle 
presentations, 46 ; at the sur- 
render of TJlm, 70-4 ; sees the 
rout of the 4th at Austerlitz, 
109-10 ; at Eylau, 158-9, 169- 
170, 172-4; meeting Eagles on 
the march, 193 ; nvmierous 
wounds of, 201 ; forlorn-hope 
attempt to save Paris, 319-23 ; 
during the battle at Waterloo, 
386-7, 389-90, 397, 409-10; 
witnesses the rout of the Guard, 
409 ; retreating in the square of 
the Old Guard, 411-14 

Naval Eagle, only one now 
existing, 46-50 

Ney, Marshal, 19, 42, 62, 63, 65-9, 
71, 75, 78-9, 80, 82, 130, 131, 
136, 139-41, 144, 150, 176, 259, 
267, 276-7, 281-6, 288, 291, 293,' 
303, 318, 336, 354, 357-60, 377, 
385, 389, 390-2, 406-8 ; super- 
intends the surrender at Ulm, 
70-1 ; defilade of garrison of 
Magdebxirg before, 140-1 ; hero- 
ism of, in retreat from Mos- 
cow, 281-4, 286 ; orders his 
Eagles to be destroyed, 284 ; 
at Waterloo, 390, 2, 406-8. 

Officers' guard accompanies Eagles 
throughout Moscow retreat, 
286-7, 289-90 

Official Eagle regulations and 
instructions, 11, 12, 13, 188-90, 
268-9 

Old Guard, full-dress uniform 
always carried for triiunphal 
parades, 146, 273, 382 ; Eagle of, 
at Eylau, 169, 171-2 ; charge 
of, at Eylau, 170-1 ; how re- 
cniited and privileges, 1 79-80 ; 
Eagle of, recrosses the Niemen, 
291 ; existing Eagle of the 
Grenadiers, 314-15 ; escort Na- 
poleon from Waterloo, 411- 
415 

Oudinot, Marshal, 54, 98, 112, 
287, 293, 308, 18, 364 



Pack, General, Sir Dennis, at 
Waterloo, 393, 407 

Percy, Major the Hon. Henry 
(11th Light Dragoons), brings 
Wellington's Waterloo de- 
spatch to England, 424-5, 427- 
428 

Petit, General, at Waterloo, 311, 
312, 13, 14, 350, 412, 13, 17 

Picton, General Sir Thomas, at 
Waterloo, 246, 389, 393, 394, 
399 

Pierce, Lieutenant, 66th Regiment, 
takes Eagle at Salamanca, 
253 

Polytechnic, school flag burned 
after surrender of Paris, 327 

Pope and the Coronation, Napo- 
leon's first views as to presence 
of in Paris, 3 

Pratt, Ensign, 30th Regiment, 
takes Eagle at Salamanca, 254 

Presentation of Eagles by Napo- 
leon in the field, 194-6, 268-9, 
305 

Prussian army, before Jena, 123-5; 
hopeless demoralisation of after, 
125-126, 137-8, 142-3 ; fugitives 
from Jena cause break-up of 
Auerstadt troops, 127-8 

Prussian prisoners in France, 
Napoleon's orders in regard to, 
46, 7 

Rapp, Colonel, of the Mamelukes, 

at Austerlitz, 110-11 
Ratisbon, heroic fight in defence, 

199; Eagle of 65th buried in 

cellar, 197-201 
Reception of the Old Guard In 

Paris after Friedland, 177-9 
Regimental numbers abolished by 

the Bourbons at Restoration, 

feeling among the soldiers, 351-2 
Reille, General, at Waterloo, 38 1» 

382, 83, 84, 85, 88, 410 
Retiro, Madrid, two Eagles taken 

at surrender of, now at Chelsea, 

259-60 



INDEX 



443 



Eussian Cuirassiers of the Guard 
at Austerlitz, 108-9 

St. Cyr, Marshal, 9, 283, 291, 302, 
307, 348, 364 

St. Hilaire, General, at Austerlitz 
andEylau, 104, 7, 163 

St. Petersburg Dragoons take two 
Eagles at Eylau, 153-4 

Salamanca, Battle of, 243-5 ; Wel- 
lington's diploma victory, 243 ; 
Marmont carried wounded off 
the field, 244 ; charge of Heavy 
Cavalry at, three regiments 
ridden down, 250-2 ; two 
Eagles taken at, 253-5 

Saving of the Eagle of the Chas- 
sevirs of the Guard at Austerlitz, 
418-20 

Schonbrunn review after Auster- 
litz, 4th of the Line censured 
by Napoleon at, 116-20 

Serrurier, Marshal, Governor of 
the InvaUdes, 34, 328, 9, 330, 
331, 2, 363 

Smolensk, Eagles in the attack on, 
267-8 ; new regiment wins its 
Eagle at, 268-9 

Soult, Marshal, 19, 29, 41, 42, 58, 
98, 99, 100, 103, 4, 12, 13, 14, 16, 
127, 29, 39, 55, 63, 64, 197, 337, 
363, 377, 385, 386, 390, 414, 416 

Spandau, surrender of fortress of, 
to squadron of hussars, 126 

State procession of Napoleon to 
Champ de Mars for presenta- 
tion of Eagles, 24-30 

Stettm, surrender of, 126, 138 

Styles, Corporal, 1st Royal Dra- 
goons, at Waterloo, takes charge 
of captured Eagle, 402 

" Temple of Victory " for the 
trophies of the Grand Army, 
Napoleon's proposals for the 
Madeleine as, 175 

Trophies taken in the Jena Ceim- 
paign. Napoleon's disposal of, 
138-9, 141, 144, 147-8 



Trophy Eagles at Vienna, 204-5, 

292 
Tyrol Campaign, 1805, storming of 

the heights before Innsbriick by 

Marshal Ney, Eagles signal main 

attack, 78-9 

Ulm Campaign, Eagles in : Eagle 
of 59th at Giinsburg, 63 ; Eagle 
of the 6th Light Infantry heads 
the attack at Elchingen, 67-8 ; 
paraded at the surrender of Uhn 
for the Austrian prisoners to 
pass before, 69 ; hiuniliating 
march past of defeated Aus- 
trian army, 69-77 ; trophies 
sent by Napoleon to Paris, 
77-8 

Vandamme, General, 104, 107, 116, 
297, 98, 99, 200, 422 

Victor, Marshal, 238, 287, 288, 
318, 364 

Vigo-Roussillon, Lieut.-Col., of the 
8th of the Line, at Barrosa, 229, 
230, 231, 233 

Villeneuve, Admiral, after Trafal- 
gar, 49, 50, 120, 382 

Vincennes, Artillery Depot of. 
Eagles sent to, for destruction at 
the Restoration, 346-7, 434 

Wagram Campaign: Eagle of the 
65th hidden in a cellar at 
Ratisbon, wrapped in Austrian 
flags, unearthed, and presented 
to Napoleon, 200-1 ; " One 
against ten," the Eagle of the 
84th, 202-4 ; Eagle of the 9th 
buried on the battlefield at As- 
pem, 204 ; Eagles of the 35th, 
95th, and 106th taken, 204-5 ; 
Macdonald's coliunn at Wag- 
ram ; five regiments rally round 
their Eagles, 212-13 

Waterloo Campaign: Eagles in, 
Napoleon's parade of, before the 
battle, 380-2 ; taking of Eagle 



444 



INDEX 



of the 45th, 396-7 ; two other 
Eagles stated to have been 
taken and recovered, 398-9, 
403-5; "fanion" of the 45th 
taken and lost while on the 
march, 399 ; taking of the Eagle 
of the 105th, 400-3; "fanion" 
of the 105th found at Abbots- 
ford, 403 ; Eagle of the 1st of 
the Line before Hougoumont 
saved by colonel, 405 ; Eagles 



of the Guard in the last attack, 
406 ; Eagles of the 8th and 
95th, 408 ; Eagle of the Old 
Guard escorts Napoleon oS the 
field, 412-14 ; news of, in Lon- 
don, 426-9 ; in Paris, 429. 
WelUngton, mentioned, 51, 223, 
224, 8, 33, 34, 242, 43, 45, 46, 
250, 3, 9, 260, 336, 380, 83, 84, 
385, 88, 89, 90, 99, 400, 404, 
424, 429 



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